EcmaScript 2015 implemented these two new string methods.
startsWith() checks if a string is starting with given characters.
endsWith() check if a string is ending with given characters.
Both methods return a Boolean: true or false.
The syntax of both is:
string.startsWith(searchCharacters, position)
string.endsWith(searchCharacters, length)Let’s explain how it works with the first parameter only. Here’s how it looks like in action:
const cityName = 'New Delhi';
cityName.startsWith('New'); // returns true
const countryName = 'Tajikistan';
countryName.endsWith('stan'); // returns trueBe careful because these methods are case sensitive, so this:
cityName.startsWith('new');
countryName.endsWith('STAN');returns false.
There is an optional, second parameter we can pass, apart from the characters to search in a string.
For startsWith() it’s a position in a string that determines at what index we want to start searching. Default value is set to 0 . If we want to start checking from the other position, just pass the desired number as the second parameter.
For endsWith() the second parameter will set the length of the string. So under the hood, the string will be sliced to the given length first, and then the search will be performed.
const cityName = 'Vladivostok';
const countryName = 'Luxembourg';
cityName.startsWith('vostok', 5) // returns true
countryName.endsWith('xem', 5) // returns trueThese methods are supported by all major modern browsers except Internet Explorer. Even the ‘newest’ IE11 doesn’t support it. Here’s how we can recreate the functionality of these methods.
startsWith()
const cityName = 'Las Vegas';
cityName.indexOf('Las') === 0; // returns trueendsWith()
const countryName = 'Iceland';
const searchPhrase = 'land';
countryName.indexOf(searchPhrase, countryName.length - searchPhrase.length) !== -1; // returns true