- strpos: documentation ( source)
<?php
//weird encoding
$mydata="Entity: This data must work." ;
echo (strpos($mydata,'Εntity') === false) ? 'normal' : 'other';
//normal
$mydata="Εntity: This data must work." ;
echo (strpos($mydata,'Εntity') === false) ? 'normal' : 'other';