A function I made to find the first occurrence of a particular needle not enclosed in quotes(single or double). Works for simple nesting (no backslashed nesting allowed).

<?php
function strposq($haystack, $needle, $offset = 0){
    $len = strlen($haystack);
    $charlen = strlen($needle);
    $flag1 = false;
    $flag2 = false;
    for($i = $offset; $i < $len; $i++){
        if(substr($haystack, $i, 1) == "'"){
            $flag1 = !$flag1 && !$flag2 ? true : false;
        }
        if(substr($haystack, $i, 1) == '"'){
            $flag2 = !$flag1 && !$flag2 ? true : false;
        }
        if(substr($haystack, $i, $charlen) == $needle && !$flag1 && !$flag2){
            return $i;        
        }
    }
    return false;
}

echo strposq("he'llo'character;\"'som\"e;crap", ";"); //16
?>