String
String is a value type that can store strings of characters.
Literal syntax
String literals are expressed by enclosing the string in double-quotes.
property String country: "Australia" property String quote: "Murum aries attigit"
As it is used as the string delimiter, you cannot directly include an actual double-quote character in a literal string. When you need to, you must escape the character first. Escaping refers to including a preceding escape, or backslash, character.
property String text: "\"Run away!\", he exclaimed."
Other special characters can be included in string literals using escape sequences. The most common are "\n" to include a new-line, and "\\" to include a literal backslash. For convenience, Zing supports the same 9 single-character escape sequences as JavaScript.
property String text: "First line.\nSecond line."
You can include more exotic characters in a string by escaping a 16-bit unicode code point value ("\unnnn").
property String appleWatch: "\uF8FF Watch"
Additionally Zing supports the same 2-character hexadecimal character escaping sequences as JavaScript.
Conversions
All value and element types can be converted to a string-ified version using a string cast.
String(123) String(myVar) String(Math.floor(2.345))
static function String.base64Decoded(String data) → String
static function String.base64Encoded(String data) → String
Encodes and decodes strings with MIME-style (RFC 2045) base64 coding.
If the data to be encoded is a UTF-16 string, it is first converted to UTF-8 before the bytes are encoded. This conversion is not reversed when decoding.
static function String.xhtmlDecoded(String string) → String
Decodes the XHTML and HTML character references present in the input string. xhtmlDecode decodes both numeric character and character entity references.
var string = "Cookies & Cream" System.log(String.xhtmlDecoded(string)) // Logs "Cookies & Cream"
static function String.fromCharCode(Int charCode...) → String
Returns a new String consisting of the provided Unicode characters.
var string = String.fromCharCode(104, 101, 108, 108, 111) // "hello"
function arg(any value...) → String
Returns a new string, with the lowest numbered argument token replaced by the provided value.
var str = "I caught {0} fish".arg(7) // "I caught 7 fish"
If more than one value is provided, the argument tokens are replaced in ascending order.
// "I ran approximately 4 miles" var str = "I {1} approximately {0} miles".arg(4, "ran")
function charCodeAt(Int position) → Int
Return a number for the unicode value of the single character at position, or 0 if position is outside the string's bounds.
Int charCode = "hello".charCodeAt(3) // 108
function compare(String other) → Int
Returns 0, -1 or 1 if this string is equal to, less than or greater than other.
Int compare = "silk".compare("cotton") // 1
function concat(String string...) → String
Returns this String consisting of the characters of this String, followed by the characters of each provided string.
String string = "Veni".concat(" vidi", " vici") // "Veni vidi vici"
function contains(String string) → Bool
Returns true if this string contains the substring, false otherwise.
optional Bool caseSensitive: true
Whether the search is case sensitive or insensitive.
function endsWith(String string) → Bool
Returns true if this string ends with the substring.
optional Bool caseSensitive: true
Whether the comparison is case sensitive or insensitive.
function indexOf(String searchString) → Int
Returns the index position of the first occurrence of the searchString in this string. Returns -1 if searchString is not found.
optional Int fromIndex
Begin searching from the specified index, instead of the start of the string.
optional Bool caseSensitive: true
Whether the search is case sensitive or insensitive.
Int index = "hello world!".indexOf("world") // 6
function lastIndexOf(String searchString) → Int
Returns the index position of the last occurrence of the searchString in this string. Returns -1 if searchString is not found.
optional Int fromIndex
Begin searching from the specified index, instead of the end of the string.
optional Bool caseSensitive: true
Whether the search is case sensitive or insensitive.
Int index = "hello world!".lastIndexOf("l") // 9
Returns a substring that contains the first n characters of the String.
String string = "hello world!".left(5) // "hello"
function mid(Int position) → String
function mid(Int position, Int n) → String
Returns a string that contains n characters of this string, starting at the specified position index.
If n is not provided, all characters from position until the end of the string are returned.
String string = "one two three".mid(4, 3) // "two"
function remove(Int n, Int length)
Remove length characters from the string, begining at position n. If length isn't provided, a single character is removed.
function right(Int n) → String
Returns a substring that contains the n rightmost characters of the String.
String string = "hello world!".right(6) // "world!"
function split(String separator) → Array<String>
Splits the string into an array of substrings wherever the separator occurs. If the separator does not occur in the string, the result is a single-element array containing the original string.
var fields = "hello,world".split(",") // ["hello", "world"]
function startsWith(String string) → Bool
Returns true if this string starts with the substring.
optional Bool caseSensitive: true
Whether the comparison is case sensitive or insensitive.
function replace(String before, String after)
Replaces all instances of before with after in the string.
String string = "Cats are the best" string.replace("Cats", "Dogs") // "Dogs are the best"
function toLowerCase() → String
Returns a new string where all characters are now lower case.
"STOP SHOUTING".toLowerCase() // "stop shouting"