How to remove the first character of string in PHP?

Question

$str=\':this is a applepie :) \';

How to use PHP, Remove the first character :

Answer 1

$str = substr($str, 1);

See PHP manual example 3

echo substr('abcdef', 1);     // bcdef

Note:

unset($str[0]) 

will not work as you cannot unset part of a string:-

Fatal error: Cannot unset string offsets