F# IndexOf String Examples: LastIndexOf and Contains

IndexOf. A string is contained in another. A character may also be present. With IndexOf, and its friends LastIndexOf, IndexOfAny and LastIndexOfAny we search for chars and strings.

Initial example. Here we use IndexOf. We have a string containing 3 words—fish, frog and dog. We use IndexOf to search for "frog" and "bird." For "frog" we get the index 5.

But: For "bird" we do not find a match. So the IndexOf method returns -1. This is a special value meaning "not found."

F# program that uses IndexOf let words = "fish frog dog" // Call IndexOf on a string. // ... The word "frog" exists but "bird" does not. let frogPosition = words.IndexOf("frog") let birdPosition = words.IndexOf("bird") // Print our results. printfn "%d" frogPosition printfn "%d" birdPosition Output 5 -1

LastIndexOf. With this function we search from the right to the left (backwards in order). So LastIndexOf returns the last position of the substring. This is the opposite of IndexOf.

F# program that uses LastIndexOf let codes = "abc def abc def" // Use IndexOf and LastIndexOf to search from the left and right. let firstAbc = codes.IndexOf "abc" let lastAbc = codes.LastIndexOf "abc" // The substring "abc" was located in different places. printfn "%d" firstAbc printfn "%d" lastAbc Output 0 8

Contains. This is a simple method. It returns true if the substring is contained in the string, and false if not. It is a simplification of IndexOf.

Tip: We can check against a return value of -1 with IndexOf for the same functionality as Contains.

F# program that uses Contains let title = "Areopagitica" // The string contains this substring. let test1 = title.Contains "ca" // But this substring is not found. let test2 = title.Contains "cat" // Print the results as booleans. printfn "%b" test1 printfn "%b" test2 Output true false

IndexOfAny. This method (and its friend LastIndexOfAny) receives a char array argument. We use a special F# syntax with vertical bars to specify a char array.Array

Result: These methods return the first occurrence of any of the characters in the set. LastIndexOfAny searches in reverse.

F# program that uses IndexOfAny, LastIndexOfAny let colors = "green orange red blue" // Find first index of any of the letters in the char array. let firstOfSet1 = colors.IndexOfAny [|'o'; 'b'|] printfn "First o or b: %d" firstOfSet1 printfn "%s" (colors.Substring firstOfSet1) // Use another char array. let firstOfSet2 = colors.IndexOfAny [|'b'; 'g'|] printfn "First b or g: %d" firstOfSet2 printfn "%s" (colors.Substring firstOfSet2) // Use LastIndexOfAny. let lastOfSet1 = colors.LastIndexOfAny [|'b'; 'l'; 'u'|] printfn "Last b or l or u: %d" lastOfSet1 printfn "%s" (colors.Substring lastOfSet1) Output First o or b: 6 orange red blue First b or g: 0 green orange red blue Last b or l or u: 19 ue

A summary. In F# we can use a for-loop to search for substrings in a string. But IndexOf is simpler. With IndexOf and its related methods, we must handle -1 when nothing is found.

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F# IndexOf String Examples: LastIndexOf and Contains

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