programming-for-dummies

Manipulating Strings 167
Most programming languages use either the plus sign (+) or the ampersand
(&) symbol as the concatenation operator, such as
Name = “Joe “ + “Smith”
or
Name = “Joe “ & “Smith”
In the Perl language, the concatenation symbol is the dot (.) character,
such as
$Name = “Joe “ . “Smith”;
In the preceding examples, the concatenation operator takes the string
“Joe “ and combines it with the second string “Smith” to create a single
string that contains “Joe Smith”.
When concatenating strings, you may need to insert a space between the
two strings. Otherwise, the concatenation operator smashes both strings
together like “JoeSmith”, which you may not want.
Book II
Chapter 3
Manipulating Data
For more flexibility in manipulating strings, many programming languages
include built-in string functions. These functions can help you manipulate
strings in different ways, such as counting the number of characters in a
string or removing characters from a string. Table 3-5 lists some common
built-in string functions found in many programming languages.
Not all programming languages include these string functions, and if they do,
they’ll likely use different names for the same functions. For example, Visual
Basic has a Trim function for removing characters from a string, but Perl
uses a substr function that performs the same task.
Table 3-5
Common Built-In String Functions
String Function What It Does Example
length (x) Counts the number of characters in a length (Hi there!) = 9
string (x), including spaces
trim (x, y) Removes characters from a string trim (Mary, 1) = ary
index (x, y) Returns the position of a string within index (korat, ra) = 3
another string
compare (x, y) Compares two strings to see if they’re compare (A, a) = False
identical
replace (x, y, z) Replaces one string from within another replace (Batter, att, ik) =
Biker