<?php
/**
 * Removes the preceeding or proceeding portion of a string
 * relative to the last occurrence of the specified character.
 * The character selected may be retained or discarded.
 * 
 * Example usage:
 * <code>
 * $example = 'http://example.com/path/file.php';
 * $cwd_relative[] = cut_string_using_last('/', $example, 'left', true);
 * $cwd_relative[] = cut_string_using_last('/', $example, 'left', false);
 * $cwd_relative[] = cut_string_using_last('/', $example, 'right', true);
 * $cwd_relative[] = cut_string_using_last('/', $example, 'right', false);
 * foreach($cwd_relative as $string) {
 *     echo "$string <br>".PHP_EOL;
 * }
 * </code>
 * 
 * Outputs:
 * <code>
 * http://example.com/path/
 * http://example.com/path
 * /file.php
 * file.php
 * </code>
 * 
 * @param string $character the character to search for.
 * @param string $string the string to search through.
 * @param string $side determines whether text to the left or the right of the character is returned.
 * Options are: left, or right.
 * @param bool $keep_character determines whether or not to keep the character.
 * Options are: true, or false.
 * @return string
 */
function cut_string_using_last($character, $string, $side, $keep_character=true) {
    $offset = ($keep_character ? 1 : 0);
    $whole_length = strlen($string);
    $right_length = (strlen(strrchr($string, $character)) - 1);
    $left_length = ($whole_length - $right_length - 1);
    switch($side) {
        case 'left':
            $piece = substr($string, 0, ($left_length + $offset));
            break;
        case 'right':
            $start = (0 - ($right_length + $offset));
            $piece = substr($string, $start);
            break;
        default:
            $piece = false;
            break;
    }
    return($piece);
}
?>

just a small addition to carlos dot lage at gmail dot com note which makes it a bit more useful and flexible:

<?php
// return everything up to last instance of needle
// use $trail to include needle chars including and past last needle 
function reverse_strrchr($haystack, $needle, $trail) {
    return strrpos($haystack, $needle) ? substr($haystack, 0, strrpos($haystack, $needle) + $trail) : false;
}
// usage:
$ns = (reverse_strrchr($_SERVER["SCRIPT_URI"], "/", 0));
$ns2 = (reverse_strrchr($_SERVER["SCRIPT_URI"], "/", 1));
echo($ns . "<br>" . $ns2);
?>

The function provided by marcokonopacki at hotmail dot com isn't really a reverse-version of strrchr(), rather a reverse version of strchr(). It returns everything from the start of $haystack up to the FIRST instance of the $needle. This is basically a reverse of the behavior which you expect from strchr(). A reverse version of strrchr() would return everything in $haystack up to the LAST instance of $needle, eg:

<?php
// reverse strrchr() - PHP v4.0b3 and above
function reverse_strrchr($haystack, $needle)
{
    $pos = strrpos($haystack, $needle);
    if($pos === false) {
        return $haystack;
    }
    return substr($haystack, 0, $pos + 1);
}
?>

Note that this function will need to be modified slightly to work with pre 4.0b3 versions of PHP due to the return type of strrpos() ('0' is not necessarily 'false'). Check the documentation on strrpos() for more info. 

A function like this can be useful for extracting the path to a script, for example:

<?
$string = "/path/to/the/file/filename.php";

echo reverse_strrchr($string, '/'); // will echo "/path/to/the/file/"
?>

to: repley at freemail dot it

the code works very well, but as i was trying to cut script names (e.g.: $_SERVER["SCRIPT_NAME"] => /index.php, cut the string at "/" and return "index.php") it returned nothing (false). i've modified your code and now it works also if the needle is the first char.
- regards from germany

<?php
//strxchr(string haystack, string needle [, bool int leftinclusive [, bool int rightinclusive ]])
function strxchr($haystack, $needle, $l_inclusive = 0, $r_inclusive = 0){
   if(strrpos($haystack, $needle)){
       //Everything before last $needle in $haystack.
       $left =  substr($haystack, 0, strrpos($haystack, $needle) + $l_inclusive);
 
       //Switch value of $r_inclusive from 0 to 1 and viceversa.
       $r_inclusive = ($r_inclusive == 0) ? 1 : 0;
 
       //Everything after last $needle in $haystack.
       $right =  substr(strrchr($haystack, $needle), $r_inclusive);
 
       //Return $left and $right into an array.
       return array($left, $right);
   } else {
       if(strrchr($haystack, $needle)) return array('', substr(strrchr($haystack, $needle), $r_inclusive));
       else return false;
   }
}
?>

to marcokonopacki at hotmail dot com.

I had to make a slight change in your function for it to return the complete needle inclusive.

// Reverse search of strrchr.
function strrrchr($haystack,$needle)
{

   // Returns everything before $needle (inclusive).
   //return substr($haystack,0,strpos($haystack,$needle)+1);
   // becomes
   return substr($haystack,0,strpos($haystack,$needle)+strlen($needle));
}

Note: the +1 becomes +strlen($needle)

Otherwise it only returns the first character in needle backwards.

$filename = 'strrchr_test.php';
print strrchr( $filename, '.' );

Result:
.php

$other_filename = 'strrchr_test.asp.php';
print  strrchr( $other_filename, '.' );

Result:
.php

<?

// Reverse search of strrchr.
function strrrchr($haystack,$needle)
{

    // Returns everything before $needle (inclusive).
    return substr($haystack,0,strpos($haystack,$needle)+1);
    
}

$string = "FIELD NUMBER(9) NOT NULL";

echo strrrchr($string,")"); // Will print FIELD (9)

?>