Substring/Top and tail

From Rosetta Code
Substring/Top and tail is a draft programming task. It is not yet considered ready to be promoted as a complete task, for reasons that should be found in its talk page.

The task is to demonstrate how to remove the first and last characters from a string. The solution should demonstrate how to obtain the following results:

  • String with first character removed
  • String with last character removed
  • String with both the first and last characters removed

ALGOL 68

Translation of: AWK
Works with: ALGOL 68 version Revision 1 - no extensions to language used.
Works with: ALGOL 68G version Any - tested with release 1.18.0-9h.tiny.

<lang algol68>#!/usr/local/bin/a68g --script #

STRING str="carousers"; printf(($gl$,

 str,                      # remove no characters #
 str[LWB str+1:         ], # remove the first character #
 str[         :UPB str-1], # remove the last character #
 str[LWB str+1:UPB str-1], # remove both the first and last character #
 str[LWB str+2:         ], # remove the first 2 characters #
 str[         :UPB str-2], # remove the last 2 characters #
 str[LWB str+2:UPB str-2]  # remove both the first and last 2 characters #

))</lang> Output:

carousers
arousers
carouser
arouser
rousers
carouse
rouse

AWK

<lang awk>BEGIN {

 mystring="knight"
 print substr(mystring,2)                       # remove the first letter
 print substr(mystring,1,length(mystring)-1)    # remove the last character
 print substr(mystring,2,length(mystring)-1)    # remove both the first and last character

}</lang>

Icon and Unicon

The task is accomplished by sub-stringing. <lang Icon>procedure main() write(s := "knight"," --> ", s[2:0]) # drop 1st char write(s := "sock"," --> ", s[1:-1]) # drop last write(s := "brooms"," --> ", s[2:-1]) # drop both end</lang>

It could also be accomplished (less clearly) by assigning into the string as below. Very awkward for both front and back. <lang Icon>write(s := "knight"," --> ", s[1] := "", s) # drop 1st char</lang>

J

The monadic primitives }. (Behead) and }: (Curtail) are useful for this task.

Example use:
<lang j> }. 'knight' NB. drop first item night

  }: 'socks'       NB. drop last item

sock

  }: }. 'brooms'   NB. drop first and last items

room</lang>

JavaScript

<lang javascript>alert("knight".slice(1)); // strip first character alert("socks".slice(0, -1)); // strip last character alert("brooms".slice(1, -1)); // strip both first and last characters</lang>

Lua

<lang lua>print (string.sub("knights",2)) -- remove the first character print (string.sub("knights",1,-2)) -- remove the last character print (string.sub("knights",2,-2)) -- remove the first and last characters</lang>

PARI/GP

<lang parigp>df(s)=concat(vecextract(Vec(s),1<<#s-2)); dl(s)=concat(vecextract(Vec(s),1<<(#s-1)-1)); db(s)=concat(vecextract(Vec(s),1<<(#s-1)-2));</lang>

Perl

<lang perl>print substr("knight",1), "\n"; # strip first character print substr("socks", 0, -1), "\n"; # strip last character print substr("brooms", 1, -1), "\n"; # strip both first and last characters</lang>

In perl, we can also remove the last character from a string variable with the chop function:

<lang perl>$string = 'ouch'; $bits = chop($string); # The last letter is returned by the chop function print $bits; # h print $string; # ouc # See we really did chop the last letter off</lang>

PHP

<lang php><?php echo substr("knight", 1), "\n"; // strip first character echo substr("socks", 0, -1), "\n"; // strip last character echo substr("brooms", 1, -1), "\n"; // strip both first and last characters ?></lang>

PicoLisp

<lang PicoLisp>: (pack (cdr (chop "knight"))) # Remove first character -> "night"

(pack (head -1 (chop "socks"))) # Remove last character

-> "sock"

(pack (cddr (rot (chop "brooms")))) # Remove first and last characters

-> "room"</lang>

Prolog

Works with SWI-Prolog.

<lang Prolog>remove_first_last_chars :- L = "Rosetta", L = [_|L1], remove_last(L, L2), remove_last(L1, L3), writef('Original string  : %s\n', [L]), writef('Without first char  : %s\n', [L1]), writef('Without last char  : %s\n', [L2]), writef('Without first/last chars : %s\n', [L3]).

remove_last(L, LR) :- reverse(L, [_ | L1]), reverse(L1, LR).</lang> Output :

 ?- remove_first_last_chars.
Original string          : Rosetta
Without first char       : osetta
Without last char        : Rosett
Without first/last chars : osett
true.

PureBasic

<lang PureBasic>If OpenConsole()

 PrintN(Right("knight", Len("knight") - 1))  ;strip the first letter
 PrintN(Left("socks", Len("socks")- 1))      ;strip the last letter
 PrintN(Mid("brooms", 2, Len("brooms") - 2)) ;strip both the first and last letter
 
 Print(#CRLF$ + #CRLF$ + "Press ENTER to exit"): Input()
 CloseConsole()

EndIf</lang> Sample output:

night
sock
room

Python

<lang python>print "knight"[1:] # strip first character print "socks"[:-1] # strip last character print "brooms"[1:-1] # strip both first and last characters</lang>

Ruby

<lang ruby>puts "knight"[1..-1] # strip first character puts "socks"[0..-2] # strip last character puts "socks".chop # alternate way to strip last character puts "brooms"[1..-2] # strip both first and last characters</lang>

ZX Spectrum Basic

<lang zxbasic>10 PRINT FN f$("knight"): REM strip the first letter 20 PRINT FN l$("socks"): REM strip the last letter 30 PRINT FN b$("brooms"): REM strip both the first and last letter 100 STOP

9000 DEF FN f$(a$)=a$(2 TO LEN(a$)) 9010 DEF FN l$(a$)=a$(1 TO LEN(a$)-(1 AND (LEN(a$)>=1))) 9020 DEF FN b$(a$)=FN l$(FN f$(a$)) </lang>