Elixir v1.0.5 String
A String in Elixir is a UTF-8 encoded binary.
Codepoints and graphemes
The functions in this module act according to the Unicode Standard, version 6.3.0.As per the standard, a codepoint is an Unicode Character, which may be represented by one or more bytes. For example, the character “é” is represented with two bytes:
iex> byte_size("é")
2
However, this module returns the proper length:
iex> String.length("é")
1
Furthermore, this module also presents the concept of graphemes, which are multiple characters that may be “perceived as a single character” by readers. For example, the same “é” character written above could be represented by the letter “e” followed by the accent ́:
iex> string = "\x{0065}\x{0301}"
iex> byte_size(string)
3
iex> String.length(string)
1
Although the example above is made of two characters, it is perceived by users as one.
Graphemes can also be two characters that are interpreted as one by some languages. For example, some languages may consider “ch” as a grapheme. However, since this information depends on the locale, it is not taken into account by this module.
In general, the functions in this module rely on the Unicode Standard, but does not contain any of the locale specific behaviour.
More information about graphemes can be found in the Unicode Standard Annex #29. This current Elixir version implements Extended Grapheme Cluster algorithm.
String and binary operations
To act accordingly to the Unicode Standard, many functions in this module runs in linear time, as it needs to traverse the whole string considering the proper Unicode codepoints.
For example, String.length/1
is going to take longer as
the input grows. On the other hand, byte_size/1
always runs
in constant time (i.e. regardless of the input size).
This means often there are performance costs in using the functions in this module, compared to the more low-level operations that work directly with binaries:
Kernel.binary_part/3
- retrieves part of the binaryKernel.bit_size/1
andKernel.byte_size/1
- size related functionsKernel.is_bitstring/1
andKernel.is_binary/1
- type checking function- Plus a number of functions for working with binaries (bytes)
in the
:binary
module
There are many situations where using the String
module can
be avoided in favor of binary functions or pattern matching.
For example, imagine you have a string prefix
and you want to
remove this prefix from another string named full
.
One may be tempted to write:
iex> take_prefix = fn full, prefix ->
...> base = String.length(prefix)
...> String.slice(full, base, String.length(full) - base)
...> end
...> take_prefix.("Mr. John", "Mr. ")
"John"
Although the function above works, it performs poorly. To
calculate the length of the string, we need to traverse it
fully, so we traverse both prefix
and full
strings, then
slice the full
one, traversing it again.
A first attempting at improving it could be with ranges:
iex> take_prefix = fn full, prefix ->
...> base = String.length(prefix)
...> String.slice(full, base..-1)
...> end
...> take_prefix.("Mr. John", "Mr. ")
"John"
While this is much better (we don’t traverse full
twice),
it could still be improved. In this case, since we want to
extract a substring from a string, we can use byte_size/1
and binary_part/3
as there is no chance we will slice in
the middle of a codepoint made of more than one byte:
iex> take_prefix = fn full, prefix ->
...> base = byte_size(prefix)
...> binary_part(full, base, byte_size(full) - base)
...> end
...> take_prefix.("Mr. John", "Mr. ")
"John"
Or simply used pattern matching:
iex> take_prefix = fn full, prefix ->
...> base = byte_size(prefix)
...> <<_ :: binary-size(base), rest :: binary>> = full
...> rest
...> end
...> take_prefix.("Mr. John", "Mr. ")
"John"
On the other hand, if you want to dynamically slice a string
based on an integer value, then using String.slice/3
is the
best option as it guarantees we won’t incorrectly split a valid
codepoint in multiple bytes.
Integer codepoints
Although codepoints could be represented as integers, this module represents all codepoints as strings. For example:
iex> String.codepoints("olá")
["o", "l", "á"]
There are a couple of ways to retrieve a character integer
codepoint. One may use the ?
construct:
iex> ?o
111
iex> ?á
225
Or also via pattern matching:
iex> << eacute :: utf8 >> = "á"
iex> eacute
225
As we have seen above, codepoints can be inserted into a string by their hexadecimal code:
"ol\x{0061}\x{0301}" #=>
"olá"
Self-synchronization
The UTF-8 encoding is self-synchronizing. This means that if malformed data (i.e., data that is not possible according to the definition of the encoding) is encountered, only one codepoint needs to be rejected.
This module relies on this behaviour to ignore such invalid
characters. For example, length/1
is going to return
a correct result even if an invalid codepoint is fed into it.
In other words, this module expects invalid data to be detected when retrieving data from the external source. For example, a driver that reads strings from a database will be the one responsible to check the validity of the encoding.
Summary
Functions
Returns the grapheme in the position
of the given utf8 string
.
If position
is greater than string
length, then it returns nil
Converts the first character in the given string to uppercase and the remaining to lowercase
Splits the string into chunks of characters that share a common trait
Returns all codepoints in the string
Check if string
contains any of the given contents
Convert all characters on the given string to lowercase
Returns a binary subject
duplicated n
times
Returns true
if string
ends with any of the suffixes given, otherwise
false
. suffixes
can be either a single suffix or a list of suffixes
Returns the first grapheme from an utf8 string, nil if the string is empty
Returns unicode graphemes in the string as per Extended Grapheme Cluster algorithm outlined in the Unicode Standard Annex #29, Unicode Text Segmentation
Returns the last grapheme from an utf8 string,
nil
if the string is empty
Returns the number of unicode graphemes in an utf8 string
Returns a new string of length len
with subject
left justified and padded
with padding
. If padding
is not present, it defaults to whitespace. When
len
is less than the length of subject
, subject
is returned
Returns a string where leading Unicode whitespace has been removed
Returns a string where leading char
have been removed
Check if string
matches the given regular expression
Returns the next codepoint in a String
Returns the next grapheme in a String
Checks if a string is printable considering it is encoded
as UTF-8. Returns true
if so, false
otherwise
Returns a new binary based on subject
by replacing the parts
matching pattern
by replacement
. By default, it replaces
all entries, except if the global
option is set to false
Reverses the given string. Works on graphemes
Returns a new string of length len
with subject
right justified and
padded with padding
. If padding
is not present, it defaults to
whitespace. When len
is less than the length of subject
, subject
is
returned
Returns a string where trailing Unicode whitespace has been removed
Returns a string where trailing char
have been removed
Returns a substring from the offset given by the start of the range to the offset given by the end of the range
Returns a substring starting at the offset given by the first, and a length given by the second
Divides a string into substrings at each Unicode whitespace occurrence with leading and trailing whitespace ignored
Divides a string into substrings based on a pattern
Splits a string into two at the specified offset. When the offset given is negative, location is counted from the end of the string
Returns true
if string
starts with any of the prefixes given, otherwise
false
. prefixes
can be either a single prefix or a list of prefixes
Returns a string where leading/trailing Unicode whitespace has been removed
Returns a string where leading/trailing char
have been
removed
Converts a string to an atom
Converts a string into a char list
Converts a string to an existing atom
Returns a float whose text representation is string
Returns a integer whose text representation is string
Returns an integer whose text representation is string
in base base
Convert all characters on the given string to uppercase
Checks whether str
contains only valid characters
Checks whether str
is a valid character
Types
Functions
Returns the grapheme in the position
of the given utf8 string
.
If position
is greater than string
length, then it returns nil
.
Examples
iex> String.at("elixir", 0)
"e"
iex> String.at("elixir", 1)
"l"
iex> String.at("elixir", 10)
nil
iex> String.at("elixir", -1)
"r"
iex> String.at("elixir", -10)
nil
Converts the first character in the given string to uppercase and the remaining to lowercase.
This relies on the titlecase information provided by the Unicode Standard. Note this function makes no attempt to capitalize all words in the string (usually known as titlecase).
Examples
iex> String.capitalize("abcd")
"Abcd"
iex> String.capitalize("fin")
"Fin"
iex> String.capitalize("olá")
"Olá"
Splits the string into chunks of characters that share a common trait.
The trait can be one of two options:
:valid
– the string is split into chunks of valid and invalid character sequences:printable
– the string is split into chunks of printable and non-printable character sequences
Returns a list of binaries each of which contains only one kind of characters.
If the given string is empty, an empty list is returned.
Examples
iex> String.chunk(<<?a, ?b, ?c, 0>>, :valid)
["abc\0"]
iex> String.chunk(<<?a, ?b, ?c, 0, 0x0ffff::utf8>>, :valid)
["abc\0", <<0x0ffff::utf8>>]
iex> String.chunk(<<?a, ?b, ?c, 0, 0x0ffff::utf8>>, :printable)
["abc", <<0, 0x0ffff::utf8>>]
Returns all codepoints in the string.
Examples
iex> String.codepoints("olá")
["o", "l", "á"]
iex> String.codepoints("оптими зации")
["о","п","т","и","м","и"," ","з","а","ц","и","и"]
iex> String.codepoints("ἅἪῼ")
["ἅ","Ἢ","ῼ"]
Check if string
contains any of the given contents
.
matches
can be either a single string or a list of strings.
Examples
iex> String.contains? "elixir of life", "of"
true
iex> String.contains? "elixir of life", ["life", "death"]
true
iex> String.contains? "elixir of life", ["death", "mercury"]
false
Convert all characters on the given string to lowercase.
Examples
iex> String.downcase("ABCD")
"abcd"
iex> String.downcase("AB 123 XPTO")
"ab 123 xpto"
iex> String.downcase("OLÁ")
"olá"
Returns a binary subject
duplicated n
times.
Examples
iex> String.duplicate("abc", 0)
""
iex> String.duplicate("abc", 1)
"abc"
iex> String.duplicate("abc", 2)
"abcabc"
Returns true
if string
ends with any of the suffixes given, otherwise
false
. suffixes
can be either a single suffix or a list of suffixes.
Examples
iex> String.ends_with? "language", "age"
true
iex> String.ends_with? "language", ["youth", "age"]
true
iex> String.ends_with? "language", ["youth", "elixir"]
false
Returns the first grapheme from an utf8 string, nil if the string is empty.
Examples
iex> String.first("elixir")
"e"
iex> String.first("եոգլի")
"ե"
Returns unicode graphemes in the string as per Extended Grapheme Cluster algorithm outlined in the Unicode Standard Annex #29, Unicode Text Segmentation.
Examples
iex> String.graphemes("Ā̀stute")
["Ā̀","s","t","u","t","e"]
Returns the last grapheme from an utf8 string,
nil
if the string is empty.
Examples
iex> String.last("elixir")
"r"
iex> String.last("եոգլի")
"ի"
Specs
length(t) :: non_neg_integer
Returns the number of unicode graphemes in an utf8 string.
Examples
iex> String.length("elixir")
6
iex> String.length("եոգլի")
5
Returns a new string of length len
with subject
left justified and padded
with padding
. If padding
is not present, it defaults to whitespace. When
len
is less than the length of subject
, subject
is returned.
Examples
iex> String.ljust("abc", 5)
"abc "
iex> String.ljust("abc", 5, ?-)
"abc--"
Returns a string where leading Unicode whitespace has been removed.
Examples
iex> String.lstrip(" abc ")
"abc "
Returns a string where leading char
have been removed.
Examples
iex> String.lstrip("_ abc _", ?_)
" abc _"
Check if string
matches the given regular expression.
Examples
iex> String.match?("foo", ~r/foo/)
true
iex> String.match?("bar", ~r/foo/)
false
Returns the next codepoint in a String.
The result is a tuple with the codepoint and the
remaining of the string or nil
in case
the string reached its end.
As with other functions in the String module, this function does not check for the validity of the codepoint. That said, if an invalid codepoint is found, it will be returned by this function.
Examples
iex> String.next_codepoint("olá")
{"o", "lá"}
Returns the next grapheme in a String.
The result is a tuple with the grapheme and the
remaining of the string or nil
in case
the String reached its end.
Examples
iex> String.next_grapheme("olá")
{"o", "lá"}
Specs
printable?(t) :: boolean
Checks if a string is printable considering it is encoded
as UTF-8. Returns true
if so, false
otherwise.
Examples
iex> String.printable?("abc")
true
Returns a new binary based on subject
by replacing the parts
matching pattern
by replacement
. By default, it replaces
all entries, except if the global
option is set to false
.
A pattern
may be a string or a regex.
Examples
iex> String.replace("a,b,c", ",", "-")
"a-b-c"
iex> String.replace("a,b,c", ",", "-", global: false)
"a-b,c"
The pattern can also be a regex. In those cases, one can give \N
or
\g{N}
in the replacement
string to access a specific capture in the
regex:
iex> String.replace("a,b,c", ~r/,(.)/, ",\\1\\1")
"a,bb,cc"
Notice we had to escape the escape character \
. By giving \0
,
one can inject the whole matched pattern in the replacement string.
When strings are used as a pattern, a developer can also use the
replaced part inside the replacement
via the :insert_replaced
option:
iex> String.replace(“a,b,c”, “b”, “[]“, insert_replaced: 1)
“a,[b],c”
iex> String.replace(“a,b,c”, “,”, “[]“, insert_replaced: 2)
“a[],b[],c”
iex> String.replace(“a,b,c”, “,”, “[]“, insert_replaced: [1, 1])
“a[,,]b[,,]c”
Reverses the given string. Works on graphemes.
Examples
iex> String.reverse("abcd")
"dcba"
iex> String.reverse("hello world")
"dlrow olleh"
iex> String.reverse("hello ∂og")
"go∂ olleh"
Returns a new string of length len
with subject
right justified and
padded with padding
. If padding
is not present, it defaults to
whitespace. When len
is less than the length of subject
, subject
is
returned.
Examples
iex> String.rjust("abc", 5)
" abc"
iex> String.rjust("abc", 5, ?-)
"--abc"
Returns a string where trailing Unicode whitespace has been removed.
Examples
iex> String.rstrip(" abc ")
" abc"
Returns a string where trailing char
have been removed.
Examples
iex> String.rstrip(" abc _", ?_)
" abc "
Returns a substring from the offset given by the start of the range to the offset given by the end of the range.
If the start of the range is not a valid offset for the given
string or if the range is in reverse order, returns ""
.
If the start or end of the range are negative, the whole string is traversed first in order to convert the negative indexes into positive ones.
Remember this function works with unicode codepoints and consider
the slices to represent codepoints offsets. If you want to split
on raw bytes, check Kernel.binary_part/3
instead.
Examples
iex> String.slice("elixir", 1..3)
"lix"
iex> String.slice("elixir", 1..10)
"lixir"
iex> String.slice("elixir", 10..3)
""
iex> String.slice("elixir", -4..-1)
"ixir"
iex> String.slice("elixir", 2..-1)
"ixir"
iex> String.slice("elixir", -4..6)
"ixir"
iex> String.slice("elixir", -1..-4)
""
iex> String.slice("elixir", -10..-7)
""
iex> String.slice("a", 0..1500)
"a"
iex> String.slice("a", 1..1500)
""
Returns a substring starting at the offset given by the first, and a length given by the second.
If the offset is greater than string length, then it returns ""
.
Remember this function works with unicode codepoints and consider
the slices to represent codepoints offsets. If you want to split
on raw bytes, check Kernel.binary_part/3
instead.
Examples
iex> String.slice("elixir", 1, 3)
"lix"
iex> String.slice("elixir", 1, 10)
"lixir"
iex> String.slice("elixir", 10, 3)
""
iex> String.slice("elixir", -4, 4)
"ixir"
iex> String.slice("elixir", -10, 3)
""
iex> String.slice("a", 0, 1500)
"a"
iex> String.slice("a", 1, 1500)
""
iex> String.slice("a", 2, 1500)
""
Divides a string into substrings at each Unicode whitespace occurrence with leading and trailing whitespace ignored.
Examples
iex> String.split("foo bar")
["foo", "bar"]
iex> String.split("foo" <> <<194, 133>> <> "bar")
["foo", "bar"]
iex> String.split(" foo bar ")
["foo", "bar"]
Divides a string into substrings based on a pattern.
Returns a list of these substrings. The pattern can be a string, a list of strings or a regular expression.
The string is split into as many parts as possible by
default, but can be controlled via the parts: num
option.
If you pass parts: :infinity
, it will return all possible parts.
Empty strings are only removed from the result if the
trim
option is set to true
.
Examples
Splitting with a string pattern:
iex> String.split("a,b,c", ",")
["a", "b", "c"]
iex> String.split("a,b,c", ",", parts: 2)
["a", "b,c"]
iex> String.split(" a b c ", " ", trim: true)
["a", "b", "c"]
A list of patterns:
iex> String.split("1,2 3,4", [" ", ","])
["1", "2", "3", "4"]
A regular expression:
iex> String.split("a,b,c", ~r{,})
["a", "b", "c"]
iex> String.split("a,b,c", ~r{,}, parts: 2)
["a", "b,c"]
iex> String.split(" a b c ", ~r{\s}, trim: true)
["a", "b", "c"]
Splitting on empty patterns returns codepoints:
iex> String.split("abc", ~r{})
["a", "b", "c", ""]
iex> String.split("abc", "")
["a", "b", "c", ""]
iex> String.split("abc", "", trim: true)
["a", "b", "c"]
iex> String.split("abc", "", parts: 2)
["a", "bc"]
Splits a string into two at the specified offset. When the offset given is negative, location is counted from the end of the string.
The offset is capped to the length of the string.
Returns a tuple with two elements.
Examples
iex> String.split_at "sweetelixir", 5
{"sweet", "elixir"}
iex> String.split_at "sweetelixir", -6
{"sweet", "elixir"}
iex> String.split_at "abc", 0
{"", "abc"}
iex> String.split_at "abc", 1000
{"abc", ""}
iex> String.split_at "abc", -1000
{"", "abc"}
Returns true
if string
starts with any of the prefixes given, otherwise
false
. prefixes
can be either a single prefix or a list of prefixes.
Examples
iex> String.starts_with? "elixir", "eli"
true
iex> String.starts_with? "elixir", ["erlang", "elixir"]
true
iex> String.starts_with? "elixir", ["erlang", "ruby"]
false
Returns a string where leading/trailing Unicode whitespace has been removed.
Examples
iex> String.strip(" abc ")
"abc"
Returns a string where leading/trailing char
have been
removed.
Examples
iex> String.strip("a abc a", ?a)
" abc "
Specs
to_atom(String.t) :: atom
Converts a string to an atom.
Currently Elixir does not support conversions from strings which contains Unicode codepoints greater than 0xFF.
Inlined by the compiler.
Examples
iex> String.to_atom("my_atom")
:my_atom
Specs
to_char_list(t) :: char_list
Converts a string into a char list.
Examples
iex> String.to_char_list("æß")
'æß'
Notice that this function expect a list of integer representing
UTF-8 codepoints. If you have a raw binary, you must instead use
the :binary
module.
Specs
to_existing_atom(String.t) :: atom
Converts a string to an existing atom.
Currently Elixir does not support conversions from strings which contains Unicode codepoints greater than 0xFF.
Inlined by the compiler.
Examples
iex> :my_atom
iex> String.to_existing_atom("my_atom")
:my_atom
iex> String.to_existing_atom("this_atom_will_never_exist")
** (ArgumentError) argument error
Specs
to_float(String.t) :: float
Returns a float whose text representation is string
.
Inlined by the compiler.
Examples
iex> String.to_float("2.2017764e+0")
2.2017764
Specs
to_integer(String.t) :: integer
Returns a integer whose text representation is string
.
Inlined by the compiler.
Examples
iex> String.to_integer("123")
123
Specs
to_integer(String.t, 2 .. 36) :: integer
Returns an integer whose text representation is string
in base base
.
Inlined by the compiler.
Examples
iex> String.to_integer("3FF", 16)
1023
Convert all characters on the given string to uppercase.
Examples
iex> String.upcase("abcd")
"ABCD"
iex> String.upcase("ab 123 xpto")
"AB 123 XPTO"
iex> String.upcase("olá")
"OLÁ"
Specs
valid?(t) :: boolean
Checks whether str
contains only valid characters.
Examples
iex> String.valid?("a")
true
iex> String.valid?("ø")
true
iex> String.valid?(<<0xffff :: 16>>)
false
iex> String.valid?("asd" <> <<0xffff :: 16>>)
false
Specs
valid_character?(t) :: boolean
Checks whether str
is a valid character.
All characters are codepoints, but some codepoints are not valid characters. They may be reserved, private, or other.
More info at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapping_of_Unicode_characters#Noncharacters
Examples
iex> String.valid_character?("a")
true
iex> String.valid_character?("ø")
true
iex> String.valid_character?("\x{ffff}")
false