diff --git a/xlsxwriter.class.php b/xlsxwriter.class.php
index 4b3b65b9d..710996e07 100644
--- a/xlsxwriter.class.php
+++ b/xlsxwriter.class.php
@@ -361,7 +361,7 @@ protected function writeCell(XLSXWriter_BuffererWriter &$file, $row_number, $col
if (!is_scalar($value) || $value==='') { //objects, array, empty
$file->write('');
- } elseif (is_string($value) && $value{0}=='='){
+ } elseif (is_string($value) && $value[0]=='='){
$file->write(''.self::xmlspecialchars($value).'');
} elseif ($num_format_type=='n_date') {
$file->write(''.intval(self::convert_date_time($value)).'');