根据我的测试结果，我想投票给karim79提供的regular_express。(我现在没有足够的声誉去投票!)

僵尸的解决方案使用了太多的函数调用，我甚至简化了代码。我使用PHP 5.4运行这两个解决方案10万次，结果如下:

$str = 'Hello abc, have a nice day abc! abc!';
$pos = strpos($str, 'abc');
$str = substr_replace($str, '123', $pos, 3);

1.85秒

$str = 'Hello abc, have a nice day abc! abc!';
$str = preg_replace('/abc/', '123', $str, 1);

1.35秒

如你所见。preg_replace的性能并不像很多人想象的那么差。所以如果你的常规快递不是很复杂的话，我建议你用一个漂亮的解决方案。

$str = "Hello there folks!"
$str_ex = explode("there, $str, 2);   //explodes $string just twice
                                      //outputs: array ("Hello ", " folks")
$str_final = implode("", $str_ex);    // glues above array together
                                      // outputs: str("Hello  folks")

还有一个额外的空间，但这并不重要，因为它是背景脚本在我的情况下。

不幸的是，我不知道任何PHP函数可以做到这一点。 你可以像这样很容易地自己卷:

function replace_first($find, $replace, $subject) {
    // stolen from the comments at PHP.net/str_replace
    // Splits $subject into an array of 2 items by $find,
    // and then joins the array with $replace
    return implode($replace, explode($find, $subject, 2));
}

$string = 'this is my world, not my world';
$find = 'world';
$replace = 'farm';
$result = preg_replace("/$find/",$replace,$string,1);
echo $result;

对于字符串

$string = 'OOO.OOO.OOO.S';
$search = 'OOO';
$replace = 'B';

//replace ONLY FIRST occurance of "OOO" with "B"
    $string = substr_replace($string,$replace,0,strlen($search));
    //$string => B.OOO.OOO.S

//replace ONLY LAST occurance of "OOOO" with "B"
    $string = substr_replace($string,$replace,strrpos($string,$search),strlen($search)) 
    //$string => OOO.OOO.B.S

    //replace ONLY LAST occurance of "OOOO" with "B"
    $string = strrev(implode(strrev($replace),explode(strrev($search),strrev($string),2)))
    //$string => OOO.OOO.B.S

对于单个字符

$string[strpos($string,$search)] = $replace;


//EXAMPLE

$string = 'O.O.O.O.S';
$search = 'O';
$replace = 'B';

//replace ONLY FIRST occurance of "O" with "B" 
    $string[strpos($string,$search)] = $replace;  
    //$string => B.O.O.O.S

//replace ONLY LAST occurance of "O" with "B" 
    $string[strrpos($string,$search)] = $replace; 
    // $string => B.O.O.B.S

这个函数很大程度上受到@ renoor回答的启发。 它使函数多字节安全。

function str_replace_limit($search, $replace, $string, $limit)
{
    $i = 0;
    $searchLength = mb_strlen($search);

    while(($pos = mb_strpos($string, $search)) !== false && $i < $limit)
    {
        $string = mb_substr_replace($string, $replace, $pos, $searchLength);
        $i += 1;
    }

    return $string;
}

function mb_substr_replace($string, $replacement, $start, $length = null, $encoding = null)
{
    $string = (array)$string;
    $encoding = is_null($encoding) ? mb_internal_encoding() : $encoding;
    $length = is_null($length) ? mb_strlen($string) - $start : $length;

    $string = array_map(function($str) use ($replacement, $start, $length, $encoding){

        $begin = mb_substr($str, 0, $start, $encoding);
        $end = mb_substr($str, ($start + $length), mb_strlen($str), $encoding);

        return $begin . $replacement . $end;

    }, $string);

    return ( count($string) === 1 ) ? $string[0] : $string;
}