4.4.1 Strings

String manipulation and query functions.

concat( s1, s2 )

Concatenates two strings. In most cases the same effect can be achieved by writing s1+s2, but blank values can sometimes appear as the string "null" if you do it like that.

• s1 (String): first string
• s2 (String): second string

concat( s1, s2, s3 )

Concatenates three strings. In most cases the same effect can be achieved by writing s1+s2+s3, but blank values can sometimes appear as the string "null" if you do it like that.

• s1 (String): first string
• s2 (String): second string
• s3 (String): third string

concat( s1, s2, s3, s4 )

Concatenates four strings. In most cases the same effect can be achieved by writing s1+s2+s3+s4, but blank values can sometimes appear as the string "null" if you do it like that.

• s1 (String): first string
• s2 (String): second string
• s3 (String): third string
• s4 (String): fourth string

equals( s1, s2 )

Determines whether two strings are equal. Note you should use this function instead of s1==s2, which can (for technical reasons) return false even if the strings are the same.

• s1 (String): first string
• s2 (String): second string

equalsIgnoreCase( s1, s2 )

Determines whether two strings are equal apart from possible upper/lower case distinctions.

• s1 (String): first string
• s2 (String): second string

startsWith( whole, start )

Determines whether a string starts with a certain substring.

• whole (String): the string to test
• start (String): the sequence that may appear at the start of whole

endsWith( whole, end )

Determines whether a string ends with a certain substring.

• whole (String): the string to test
• end (String): the sequence that may appear at the end of whole

contains( whole, sub )

Determines whether a string contains a given substring.

• whole (String): the string to test
• sub (String): the sequence that may appear within whole

length( str )

Returns the length of a string in characters.

• str (String): string

matches( str, regex )

Tests whether a string matches a given regular expression.

• str (String): string to test
• regex (String): regular expression string

matchGroup( str, regex )

Returns the first grouped expression matched in a string defined by a regular expression. A grouped expression is one enclosed in parentheses.

• str (String): string to match against
• regex (String): regular expression containing a grouped section

replaceFirst( str, regex, replacement )

Replaces the first occurrence of a regular expression in a string with a different substring value.

• str (String): string to manipulate
• regex (String): regular expression to match in str
• replacement (String): replacement string

replaceAll( str, regex, replacement )

Replaces all occurrences of a regular expression in a string with a different substring value.

• str (String): string to manipulate
• regex (String): regular expression to match in str
• replacement (String): replacement string

substring( str, startIndex )

Returns the last part of a given string. The substring begins with the character at the specified index and extends to the end of this string.

• str (String): the input string
• startIndex (integer): the beginning index, inclusive

substring( str, startIndex, endIndex )

Returns a substring of a given string. The substring begins with the character at startIndex and continues to the character at index endIndex-1 Thus the length of the substring is endIndex-startIndex.

• str (String): the input string
• startIndex (integer): the beginning index, inclusive
• endIndex (integer): the end index, inclusive

toUpperCase( str )

Returns an uppercased version of a string.

• str (String): input string

toLowerCase( str )

Returns an uppercased version of a string.

• str (String): input string

trim( str )

Trims whitespace from both ends of a string.

• str (String): input string

padWithZeros( value, ndigit )

Takes an integer argument and returns a string representing the same numeric value but padded with leading zeros to a specified length.

• value (long integer): numeric value to pad
• ndigit (integer): the number of digits in the resulting string