Should PHP developers consider using mb_substr() or other MultiByte-String functions when working with UTF-8 encoded text for display?

When working with UTF-8 encoded text in PHP, developers should consider using mb_substr() and other MultiByte-String functions to ensure proper handling of multibyte characters. These functions are specifically designed to work with UTF-8 encoded strings and can prevent issues such as cutting off characters in the middle or counting bytes instead of characters.

// Example of using mb_substr() to extract a substring from a UTF-8 encoded string
$text = "こんにちは世界"; // UTF-8 encoded string
$substring = mb_substr($text, 0, 5, 'UTF-8'); // Extract the first 5 characters
echo $substring; // Output: こんにちは