Substring: How to Split a String

· 216 words · 2 minutes read
#substring #split #characters #rune #convert #string #explode

In the example below we are looking at how to take the first x number of characters from the start of a string. If we know a character we want to separate on, like a space, we can use strings.Split() instead. But for this we’re looking to get the first 6 characters as a new string.

To do this we first convert it into a rune, allowing for better support in different languages and allowing us to use it like an array. Then we pick the first characters using [0:6] and converting it back to a string.

Split Based on Position:

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package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

func main() {

	myString := "Hello! This is a golangcode.com test ;)"

	// Step 1: Convert it to a rune
	a := []rune(myString)

	// Step 2: Grab the num of chars you need
	myShortString := string(a[0:6])

	fmt.Println(myShortString)
}

Split Based on Character:

The alternative way, using the strings package would be:

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package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"strings"
)

func main() {

	myString := "Hello! This is a golangcode.com test ;)"

	strParts := strings.Split(myString, "!")

	fmt.Println(strParts[0])
}

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Author:  Edd Turtle

Edd is the Lead Developer at Hoowla, a prop-tech startup, where he spends much of his time working on production-ready Go and PHP code. He loves coding, but also enjoys cycling and camping in his spare time.

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