i've thought of using substr but i can't be sure that the number above in quotes will always be the same number of characters

You can use substr() without knowing the number of characters.
To remove the first character of $str: substr($str,  0, 1, '')
To remove the last character of $str : substr($str, -1, 1, '')
Or remove the last character of $str : substr($str, length($str) - 1, '')
Or, just use chop() to remove the last character, as you've already noted.

Cheers,
Rob

In reply to Re: remove first and last character of string by syphilis
in thread remove first and last character of string by flieckster

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