Programming Tutorials

startsWith( ) and endsWith( ) in Java

By: Mashoud Printer Friendly Format    

String defines two routines that are, more or less, specialized forms of regionMatches(). The startsWith( ) method determines whether a given String begins with a specified string. Conversely, endsWith( ) determines whether the String in question ends with a specified string. They have the following general forms:

boolean startsWith(String str)
boolean endsWith(String str)

Here, str is the String being tested. If the string matches, true is returned. Otherwise, false is returned. For example,

"Foobar".endsWith("bar")

and

"Foobar".startsWith("Foo") are both true.

A second form of startsWith( ), shown here, lets you specify a starting point:

boolean startsWith(String str, int startIndex)

Here, startIndex specifies the index into the invoking string at which point the search will begin. For example,

"Foobar".startsWith("bar", 3) returns true.