Is using $string{0} a recommended method to extract the first character of a variable in PHP?

Using $string{0} to extract the first character of a variable in PHP is not recommended as it can lead to unexpected behavior and is not considered best practice. Instead, it is recommended to use the substr() function with a start index of 0 and a length of 1 to extract the first character of a string variable.

// Using substr() function to extract the first character of a string variable
$firstCharacter = substr($string, 0, 1);