module String: sig .. end
String operations.
Given a string
s
of length
l
, we call character number in
s
the index of a character in
s
. Indexes start at
0
, and we will
call a character number valid in
s
if it falls within the range
[0...l-1]
. A position is the point between two characters or at
the beginning or end of the string. We call a position valid
in
s
if it falls within the range
[0...l]
. Note that character
number
n
is between positions
n
and
n+1
.
Two parameters
start
and
len
are said to designate a valid
substring of
s
if
len >= 0
and
start
and
start+len
are
valid positions in
s
.
OCaml strings can be modified in place, for instance via the
String.set
and
String.blit
functions described below. This
possibility should be used rarely and with much care, however, since
both the OCaml compiler and most OCaml libraries share strings as if
they were immutable, rather than copying them. In particular,
string literals are shared: a single copy of the string is created
at program loading time and returned by all evaluations of the
string literal. Consider for example:
# let f () = "foo";;
val f : unit -> string = <fun>
# (f ()).[0] <- 'b';;
- : unit = ()
# f ();;
- : string = "boo"
Likewise, many functions from the standard library can return string
literals or one of their string arguments. Therefore, the returned strings
must not be modified directly. If mutation is absolutely necessary,
it should be performed on a fresh copy of the string, as produced by
String.copy
.
val length : string -> int
Return the length (number of characters) of the given string.
val get : string -> int -> char
String.get s n
returns character number n
in string s
.
You can also write s.[n]
instead of String.get s n
.
Raise Invalid_argument
if n
not a valid character number in s
.
val set : string -> int -> char -> unit
String.set s n c
modifies string s
in place,
replacing the character number n
by c
.
You can also write s.[n] <- c
instead of String.set s n c
.
Raise Invalid_argument
if n
is not a valid character number in s
.
val create : int -> string
String.create n
returns a fresh string of length
n
.
The string initially contains arbitrary characters.
Raise
Invalid_argument
if
n < 0
or
n >
Sys.max_string_length
.
val make : int -> char -> string
String.make n c
returns a fresh string of length
n
,
filled with the character
c
.
Raise
Invalid_argument
if
n < 0
or
n >
Sys.max_string_length
.
val copy : string -> string
Return a copy of the given string.
val sub : string -> int -> int -> string
String.sub s start len
returns a fresh string of length len
,
containing the substring of s
that starts at position start
and
has length len
.
Raise Invalid_argument
if start
and len
do not
designate a valid substring of s
.
val fill : string -> int -> int -> char -> unit
String.fill s start len c
modifies string s
in place,
replacing len
characters by c
, starting at start
.
Raise Invalid_argument
if start
and len
do not
designate a valid substring of s
.
val blit : string -> int -> string -> int -> int -> unit
String.blit src srcoff dst dstoff len
copies len
characters
from string src
, starting at character number srcoff
, to
string dst
, starting at character number dstoff
. It works
correctly even if src
and dst
are the same string,
and the source and destination intervals overlap.
Raise Invalid_argument
if srcoff
and len
do not
designate a valid substring of src
, or if dstoff
and len
do not designate a valid substring of dst
.
val concat : string -> string list -> string
String.concat sep sl
concatenates the list of strings sl
,
inserting the separator string sep
between each.
val iter : (char -> unit) -> string -> unit
String.iter f s
applies function f
in turn to all
the characters of s
. It is equivalent to
f s.[0]; f s.[1]; ...; f s.[String.length s - 1]; ()
.
val iteri : (int -> char -> unit) -> string -> unit
Same as
String.iter
, but the
function is applied to the index of the element as first argument
(counting from 0), and the character itself as second argument.
Since 4.00.0
val map : (char -> char) -> string -> string
String.map f s
applies function f
in turn to all
the characters of s
and stores the results in a new string that
is returned.
Since 4.00.0
val trim : string -> string
Return a copy of the argument, without leading and trailing
whitespace. The characters regarded as whitespace are: ' '
,
'\012'
, '\n'
, '\r'
, and '\t'
. If there is no leading nor
trailing whitespace character in the argument, return the original
string itself, not a copy.
Since 4.00.0
val escaped : string -> string
Return a copy of the argument, with special characters
represented by escape sequences, following the lexical
conventions of OCaml. If there is no special
character in the argument, return the original string itself,
not a copy. Its inverse function is Scanf.unescaped.
val index : string -> char -> int
String.index s c
returns the character number of the first
occurrence of character c
in string s
.
Raise Not_found
if c
does not occur in s
.
val rindex : string -> char -> int
String.rindex s c
returns the character number of the last
occurrence of character c
in string s
.
Raise Not_found
if c
does not occur in s
.
val index_from : string -> int -> char -> int
String.index_from s i c
returns the character number of the
first occurrence of character c
in string s
after position i
.
String.index s c
is equivalent to String.index_from s 0 c
.
Raise Invalid_argument
if i
is not a valid position in s
.
Raise Not_found
if c
does not occur in s
after position i
.
val rindex_from : string -> int -> char -> int
String.rindex_from s i c
returns the character number of the
last occurrence of character c
in string s
before position i+1
.
String.rindex s c
is equivalent to
String.rindex_from s (String.length s - 1) c
.
Raise Invalid_argument
if i+1
is not a valid position in s
.
Raise Not_found
if c
does not occur in s
before position i+1
.
val contains : string -> char -> bool
String.contains s c
tests if character c
appears in the string s
.
val contains_from : string -> int -> char -> bool
String.contains_from s start c
tests if character c
appears in s
after position start
.
String.contains s c
is equivalent to
String.contains_from s 0 c
.
Raise Invalid_argument
if start
is not a valid position in s
.
val rcontains_from : string -> int -> char -> bool
String.rcontains_from s stop c
tests if character c
appears in s
before position stop+1
.
Raise Invalid_argument
if stop < 0
or stop+1
is not a valid
position in s
.
val uppercase : string -> string
Return a copy of the argument, with all lowercase letters
translated to uppercase, including accented letters of the ISO
Latin-1 (8859-1) character set.
val lowercase : string -> string
Return a copy of the argument, with all uppercase letters
translated to lowercase, including accented letters of the ISO
Latin-1 (8859-1) character set.
val capitalize : string -> string
Return a copy of the argument, with the first character set to uppercase.
val uncapitalize : string -> string
Return a copy of the argument, with the first character set to lowercase.
type t = string
An alias for the type of strings.
val compare : t -> t -> int
The comparison function for strings, with the same specification as
Pervasives.compare
. Along with the type
t
, this function
compare
allows the module
String
to be passed as argument to the functors
Set.Make
and
Map.Make
.