Strings - Simple Indexing
Simple indexing is used to retrieve single characters from the string. Indexing begins with 0 which refers to the 1st
character. The index value is specified in braces and shall not be confused with a parameter set as such.
Following rules apply to the indexing strings:
- The index must always be a numeric value.
- Specifying just braces {} without an index will retrieve the length (character count) of the string. Alternatively, use length [string function].
- Indexing begins with 0 (zero).
- The value will be rounded in case it does not contain an integer value. Example: a[]{2.99} accesses the same member as a[3].
- Negative indexing is supported. -1 refers to the last character in the string. -2, -3, etc. refer to the previous ones, and so forth.
- Empty sets are returned when accessing with index values which lie out of bounds. Example: {a,b,c}{5} returnss {} (empty set).
- Updating individual elements on the left hand side of assignments is not possible. Wrong exmaple: a[]{3} = 'E';.
echo( abcde{} ); // Returns 5 (character count)
echo( abcde{0} ); // Access the 1st element
echo( abcde{-2} ); // Access the 2nd last element
echo( abcde{10} ); // Attempts to access characters outside the string returns blank strings.
echo( abcde{-10} ); // Same case here.Output:
5
a
d