String methods help you to work with strings.
Finding a String in a String
The indexOf() method returns the index of (the position of)
the first occurrence of a specified text in a string:
Example
var str = "Please locate where 'locate' occurs!";
var pos = str.indexOf("locate");
Try it Yourself »
The lastIndexOf() method returns the index of the last
occurrence of a specified text in a string:
Example
var str = "Please locate where 'locate' occurs!";
var pos = str.lastIndexOf("locate");
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Both the indexOf(), and the lastIndexOf() methods return -1 if the text is not found.
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JavaScript counts positions from zero. 0 is the first position in a string, 1 is the second, 2 is the third ... |
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Both methods accept a second parameter as the starting position for the
search.
Searching for a String in a String
The search() method searches a string for a specified value
and returns the position of the match:
Example
var str = "Please locate where 'locate' occurs!";
var pos = str.search("locate");
Try it Yourself »
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Did You Notice? |
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The two methods, indexOf() and search(), are equal.
They accept the same arguments (parameters), and they return the same value.
The two methods are equal, but the search() method can take much more
powerful search values.
You will learn more about powerful search values in the chapter about
regular expressions.
Extracting String Parts
There are 3 methods for extracting a part of a string:
- slice(start, end)
- substring(start, end)
- substr(start, length)
The slice() Method
slice() extracts a part of a string and returns the
extracted part in a new string.
The method takes 2 parameters: the starting index (position), and the ending
index (position).
This example slices out a portion of a string from position 7 to position 13:
Example
var str = "Apple, Banana, Kiwi";
var res = str.slice(7,13);
The result of res will be:
Banana
Try it yourself »
If a parameter is negative, the position is counted from the
end of the string.
This example slices out a portion of a string from position -12 to position
-6:
Example
var str = "Apple, Banana, Kiwi";
var res = str.slice(-12,-6);
The result of res will be:
Banana
Try it Yourself »
If you omit the second parameter, the method will slice out the rest of the string:
Example
var res = str.slice(7);
Try it Yourself »
or, counting from the end:
Example
var res = str.slice(-12);
Try it Yourself »
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Negative positions does not work in Internet Explorer 8 and earlier. |
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The substring() Method
substring() is similar to slice().
The difference is that substring() cannot accept negative indexes.
Example
var str = "Apple, Banana, Kiwi";
var res = str.substring(7,13);
The result of res will be:
Banana
Try it yourself »
If you omit the second parameter, substring() will slice out the rest of the
string.
The substr() Method
substr() is similar to slice().
The difference is
that the second parameter specifies the length
of the extracted part.
Example
var str = "Apple, Banana, Kiwi";
var res = str.substr(7,6);
The result of res will be:
Banana
Try it yourself »
If the first parameter is negative, the position counts from the end of the
string.
The second parameter can not be negative, because it defines the length.
If you omit the second parameter, substr() will slice out the rest of the
string.
Replacing String Content
The replace() method replaces a specified value with another
value in a string:
Example
str = "Please visit Microsoft!";
var n = str.replace("Microsoft","W3Schools");
Try it Yourself »
The replace() method can also take a regular expression as the search value.
Converting to Upper and Lower Case
A string is converted to upper case with toUpperCase():
Example
var text1 = "Hello World!"; // String
var text2 = text1.toUpperCase(); // text2 is text1 converted to upper
Try it Yourself »
A string is converted to lower case with toLowerCase():
Example
var text1 = "Hello World!"; // String
var text2 = text1.toLowerCase(); // text2 is text1
converted to lower
Try it Yourself »
The concat() Method
concat() joins two or more strings:
Example
var text1 = "Hello";
var text2 = "World";
text3 = text1.concat(" ",text2);
Try it Yourself »
The concat() method can be used instead of the plus operator.
These two lines do the same:
Example
var text = "Hello" + " " + "World!";
var text = "Hello".concat(" ","World!");
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All string methods return a new string. They don't modify the original string. Formally said: Strings are immutable: Strings cannot be changed, only replaced. |
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Extracting String Characters
There are 2 safe methods for extracting string characters:
- charAt(position)
- charCodeAt(position)
The charAt() Method
The charAt() method returns the character at a specified
index (position) in a string:
Example
var str = "HELLO WORLD";
str.charAt(0); // returns H
Try it Yourself »
The charCodeAt() Method
The charCodeAt() method returns the unicode of the character
at a specified index in a string:
Example
var str = "HELLO WORLD";
str.charCodeAt(0); // returns 72
Try it Yourself »
Accessing a String as an Array is Unsafe
You might have seen code like this, accessing a string as an array:
var str = "HELLO WORLD";
str[0]; // returns H
This is unsafe and unpredictable:
- It does not work in all browsers (not in IE5, IE6, IE7)
- It makes strings look like arrays (but they are not)
- str[0] = "H" does not give an error (but does not work)
If you want to read a string as an array, convert it to an array first.
Converting a String to an Array
A string can be converted to an array with the split() method:
Example
var txt = "a,b,c,d,e"; // String
txt.split(","); // Split on commas
txt.split(" "); // Split on spaces
txt.split("|"); // Split on pipe
Try it Yourself »
If the separator is omitted, the returned array will contain the whole string
in index [0].
If the separator is "", the returned array will be an array of single
characters:
Example
var txt = "Hello"; // String
txt.split(""); // Split in characters
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