I have been working on a PHP project and encountered an issue with the `length` variable. I'm relatively new to PHP and having trouble understanding what happened in this specific example.
In my project, I was trying to calculate the length of a given string. I used the `strlen()` function in PHP, which should have returned the length of the string. However, I didn't get the expected result and the output seemed incorrect.
I initially declared the `length` variable to store the length of the string. Here's a simplified version of the code I used:
```php
$string = "Hello world!";
$length = strlen($string);
echo "The length of the string is: " . $length;
```
Instead of getting the expected output of `13`, the output was `12`. This confused me, as I couldn't understand why the function didn't correctly calculate the string length.
I've tried debugging the code but couldn't find any obvious mistakes or issues. I even attempted to use alternative solutions like `mb_strlen()` in case there were any encoding problems, but the result was still incorrect.
I'm posting this query in the forum to seek help from experienced PHP developers who might have encountered a similar issue or have a better understanding of how the `strlen()` function works. I would appreciate any insights, suggestions, or alternative approaches to reliably calculate the length of a string in PHP.
Thank you in advance for your assistance!

User 1:
Hey there! I've had a similar issue in the past with the `strlen()` function in PHP, so I might be able to help you out. In my case, the problem was due to the presence of multibyte characters in the string.
The `strlen()` function in PHP calculates the length in bytes rather than characters. So, if your string contains multibyte characters (like certain special characters or non-ASCII characters), it might result in an incorrect length calculation.
To properly handle such cases, you can try using the `mb_strlen()` function instead. This function is specifically designed to handle multibyte characters by considering the correct character length. Here's an example:
By utilizing `mb_strlen()`, you should be able to obtain the accurate length of your string, regardless of whether it contains multibyte characters or not. Give it a try and let me know if it resolves your issue.