# jBC String Operations
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Tags: substrings string operations
A substring can be extracted with the following notation:
substring = stringvalue[x{,y}]
A substring can be assigned with the notation:
stringvalue[x,y] = "newstring"
[Note that y is not optional when used in this context]
Where:
- x is the starting position
- y is specifies the substring length
If x = 0 then 1 is assumed. If x > 0 then the starting position is x. If x < 0 then the starting position is taken x characters from the end of the string. If x > LEN(stringvalue) then '' is returned regardless of the value of y.
If y is not specified then all characters starting with x up to the end of the string are returned. If y = 0 then '' is returned. If y > 0 then y characters are extracted starting at position x. If y is greater than the remaining characters in the string then all characters up to the end of the string are returned. If y < 0 then the pointer is positioned y characters from the end of the string (i.e. LEN(stringvalue) - y + 1), and the substring is taken up to that position.
# Examples
Given the strings:
s = "Anyone who needs a will just isn't spending their money properly."
t = " all of "
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s[1,999] returns s
s[1,-1] returns s
s[0,-1] returns s
s[1,3] returns "Any"
s[4,3] returns "one"
s[-15,-10] returns "money"
s[-15,5] returns "money"
s[999,10] returns ''
s[1,0] returns ''
s[-22,1] = t returns "Anyone who needs a will just isn't spending all of their money properly." to s.
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# Note #1
A substring can also be extracted with the following notation:
substring = stringvalue[d,x,y]
Where:
- d is a delimiter
- x is the initial occurrence
- y is number of delimited fields to extract
For example:
a = "123-456-789"
CRT a["-",2,1]
returns "456".
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# Note #2
Negative substring operations are not available in all emulations. Consult your legacy manual.