heidi, I'm sorry this programming task fell to you.

Something that would really help are examples of input and output that you would expect. That way you, or anyone else, can test a function they created and see if it does the right thing.

Try posting something like:

• $a="ABCDEFGHIJKLMOPCDEFQRST"; $find="CDEF"; result=2
• $a="ABCDFG"; $find="CDEF"; result=0
• $a="CDEFCDEFCDEF"; $find="CDEF"; result=3

Without a few things to test (expected inputs, and expected outputs) you'll be unable to determine a)what you have to do and b)whether your solution is correct or not.