How to get first character of string?
JavascriptJavascript Problem Overview
I have a string, and I need to get its first character.
var x = 'somestring';
alert(x[0]); //in ie7 returns undefined
How can I fix my code?
Javascript Solutions
Solution 1 - Javascript
What you want is charAt
.
var x = 'some string';
alert(x.charAt(0)); // alerts 's'
Solution 2 - Javascript
In JavaScript you can do this:
const x = 'some string';
console.log(x.substring(0, 1));
Solution 3 - Javascript
You can use any of these.
There is a little difference between all of these So be careful while using it in conditional statement.
var string = "hello world";
console.log(string.slice(0,1)); //o/p:- h
console.log(string.charAt(0)); //o/p:- h
console.log(string.substring(0,1)); //o/p:- h
console.log(string.substr(0,1)); //o/p:- h
console.log(string[0]); //o/p:- h
var string = "";
console.log(string.slice(0,1)); //o/p:- (an empty string)
console.log(string.charAt(0)); //o/p:- (an empty string)
console.log(string.substring(0,1)); //o/p:- (an empty string)
console.log(string.substr(0,1)); //o/p:- (an empty string)
console.log(string[0]); //o/p:- undefined
Solution 4 - Javascript
const x = 'some string';
console.log(x.substring(0, 1));
Solution 5 - Javascript
Example of all method
First : string.charAt(index)
> Return the caract at the index index
var str = "Stack overflow";
console.log(str.charAt(0));
Second : string.substring(start,length);
> Return the substring in the string who start at the index start
and stop after the length length
Here you only want the first caract so : start = 0
and length = 1
var str = "Stack overflow";
console.log(str.substring(0,1));
Alternative : string[index]
A string is an array of caract. So you can get the first caract like the first cell of an array.
> Return the caract at the index index
of the string
var str = "Stack overflow";
console.log(str[0]);
Solution 6 - Javascript
var x = "somestring"
alert(x.charAt(0));
The charAt() method allows you to specify the position of the character you want.
What you were trying to do is get the character at the position of an array "x", which is not defined as X is not an array.
Solution 7 - Javascript
You can even use slice
to cut-off all other characters:
x.slice(0, 1);
Solution 8 - Javascript
var str="stack overflow";
firstChar = str.charAt(0);
secondChar = str.charAt(1);
Tested in IE6+, FF, Chrome, safari.
Solution 9 - Javascript
Try this as well:
x.substr(0, 1);
Solution 10 - Javascript
Looks like I am late to the party, but try the below solution which I personally found the best solution:
var x = "testing sub string"
alert(x[0]);
alert(x[1]);
Output should show alert with below values: "t" "e"
Solution 11 - Javascript
x.substring(0,1)
Details
substring(start, end)
extracts the characters from a string, between the 2 indices "start" and "end", not including "end" itself.
Special notes
- If "start" is greater than "end", this method will swap the two arguments, meaning str.substring(1, 4) == str.substring(4, 1).
- If either "start" or "end" is less than 0, it is treated as if it were 0.
Solution 12 - Javascript
you can use in this way:
'Hello Mr Been'.split(' ').map( item => item.toUpperCase().substring(0, 1)).join(' ');
Solution 13 - Javascript
in Nodejs you can use Buffer :
let str = "hello world"
let buffer = Buffer.alloc(2, str) // replace 2 by 1 for the first char
console.log(buffer.toString('utf-8')) // display he
console.log(buffer.toString('utf-8').length) // display 2
Solution 14 - Javascript
charAt()
do not work if it has a parent prop
ex parent.child.chartAt(0)
use parent.child.slice(0, 1)
Solution 15 - Javascript
You can use any of the following :
let userEmail = "email";
console.log(userEmail[0]); // e
console.log(userEmail.charAt(0)); // e
console.log(userEmail.slice(0, 1)); // e
console.log(userEmail.substring(0, 1)); // e
console.log(userEmail.substr(0, 1)); // e
console.log(userEmail.split("", 1).toString()); // e
console.log(userEmail.match(/./)[0]); // e
Solution 16 - Javascript
It's been 10 years yet no answer mentioned RegExp
.
var x = 'somestring';
console.log(x.match(/./)[0]);
Solution 17 - Javascript
Since every string is an array, probably the most succinct solution is by using the new spread operator:
const x = 'somestring'
const [head, ...tail] = x
console.log(head) // 's'
bonus is you can now access the total string but the first character using join('')
on tail
:
console.log(tail.join('')) // 'omestring'
Solution 18 - Javascript
For any string str = "Hello World"
str.split(' ').map( item => item.toUpperCase().substring(0, 1)).join(' ');
Output: H W
Solution 19 - Javascript
in JQuery you can use: in class for Select Option:
$('.className').each(function(){
className.push($("option:selected",this).val().substr(1));
});
in class for text Value:
$('.className').each(function(){
className.push($(this).val().substr(1));
});
in ID for text Value:
$("#id").val().substr(1)
Solution 20 - Javascript
You can use as well:
var x = "somestring";
console.log(x.split("")[0]); // output "s"
This should work with older browsers.