arrays of strings - accessing elements of array elements

Hi, Dodgy subject header or what... I have array of strings called $composition, and I itterate through this using: $composition[$i] Is there any way to echo the first character of the string by doing something like: $composition[$i][0] or ($composition[$i)][0] ? I can easily just do something like: $temp_var = $composition[$i]; echo $temp_var[0]; , but I want to know if it's possible to do it another way. Any input greatly appreciated! - Best regards, Lee