In the context of the provided code snippet, what could be done to ensure that substr() accurately selects and outputs individual characters, including special characters?

The issue with the current code snippet is that substr() is not accurately selecting individual characters when special characters are present. To ensure that substr() works correctly with special characters, we can use the mb_substr() function instead. mb_substr() is a multibyte-safe version of substr() that can handle special characters properly.

// Original code snippet
$str = "Héllo, Wörld!";
$char = substr($str, 0, 1);
echo $char; // Output: H

// Fixed code snippet using mb_substr()
$str = "Héllo, Wörld!";
$char = mb_substr($str, 0, 1);
echo $char; // Output: H