substr() problems

["James Meers" <jambo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

I am trying to use substr() negative start, but I get nothing returned - if i do a positive start then i do get something back, below is my code and a line of what i get returned:

$DB_ref = "210020007";

$DB_temp_ref = $DB_ref;

$DB_sub_ref = substr($DB_temp_ref , 0, 1);
$DB_sub_ref .= substr($DB_temp_ref , 1, 1);
$DB_sub_ref .= substr($DB_temp_ref , -1, 1);

echo "$DB_sub_ref - $DB_ref";

RESULT:

"21 - 210020007"

note: 210020007 is an example this is actually within a while statement using mysql_fetch_array from a SQL query - all results are not returning the negative string.

Can anyone help?


PHP Version 4.3.3


Apache/2.0.47 (Fedora) 

Many thanks in advance,

James.