substring Function
Returns the substring of the first argument starting at the position specified in the second argument and the length specified in the third argument.
string substring(string, number, number?)
Remarks
Each character in the string is considered to have a numeric position: the position of the first character is 1, the position of the second character is 2, and so on.
If the third argument is not specified, it returns the substring starting at the position specified in the second argument and continuing to the end of the string.
If an argument is not of type string, it is first converted to a string using the string() function and then the result of that conversion is evaluated.
Warning
String conversions for node sets that are passed as arguments to this function may yield unexpected results. For more information, see string Function.
This function is case-sensitive.
Example
The following function call returns "234":
substring("12345",2,3)
The following function call returns "2345":
substring("12345",2)
The returned substring contains those characters for which the position of the character is greater than or equal to the rounded value of the second argument, and if the third argument is specified, less than the sum of the rounded value of the second argument and the rounded value of the third argument. The comparisons and addition used for the preceding follow the standard IEEE 754 rules; rounding is done as if by a call to the round() function.
The following examples illustrate unusual cases.
substring("12345", 1.5, 2.6) returns "234"
substring("12345", 0, 3) returns "12"
substring("12345", 0 div 0, 3) returns ""
substring("12345", 1, 0 div 0) returns ""
substring("12345", -42, 1 div 0) returns "12345"
substring("12345", -1 div 0, 1 div 0) returns ""
This example demonstrates the preceding substring() expressions.
XML File
None; the XSLT file calls itself.
XSLT File (substring.xsl)
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
substring("12345",2,3) =
<xsl:value-of select='substring("12345",2,3)'/><br/>
substring("12345",2) =
<xsl:value-of select='substring("12345",2)'/><br/>
substring("12345", 1.5, 2.6) =
<xsl:value-of select='substring("12345", 1.5, 2.6)'/><br/>
substring("12345", 0, 3) =
<xsl:value-of select='substring("12345", 0, 3)'/><br/>
substring("12345", 0 div 0, 3) =
<xsl:value-of select='substring("12345", 0 div 0, 3)'/><br/>
substring("12345", 1, 0 div 0) =
<xsl:value-of select='substring("12345", 1, 0 div 0)'/><br/>
substring("12345", -42, 1 div 0) =
<xsl:value-of select='substring("12345", -42, 1 div 0)'/><br/>
substring("12345", -1 div 0, 1 div 0) =
<xsl:value-of select='substring("12345", -1 div 0, 1 div 0)'/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Formatted Output
substring("12345",2,3) = 234 substring("12345",2) = 2345 substring("12345", 1.5, 2.6) = 234 substring("12345", 0, 3) = 12 substring("12345", 0 div 0, 3) = substring("12345", 1, 0 div 0) = substring("12345", -42, 1 div 0) = 12345 substring("12345", -1 div 0, 1 div 0) =
Processor Output
<?xml version="1.0" ?> substring("12345",2,3) = 234<br /> substring("12345",2) = 2345<br /> substring("12345", 1.5, 2.6) = 234<br /> substring("12345", 0, 3) = 12<br /> substring("12345", 0 div 0, 3) = <br /> substring("12345", 1, 0 div 0) = <br /> substring("12345", -42, 1 div 0) = 12345<br /> substring("12345", -1 div 0, 1 div 0) =