Flash CS3 Documentation

ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference > ActionScript classes > String > indexOf (String.indexOf method)

indexOf (String.indexOf method)

Searches the string and returns the position of the first occurrence of value found at or after startIndex within the calling string. This index is zero-based, meaning that the first character in a string is considered to be at index 0--not index 1. If value is not found, the method returns -1.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Player 5

Parameters

value:String - A string; the substring to search for.

startIndex:Number [optional] - An integer specifying the starting index of the search.

Returns

Number - The position of the first occurrence of the specified substring or -1.

Example

The following examples use indexOf() to return the index of characters and substrings:

var searchString:String = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.";
var index:Number;

index = searchString.indexOf("L");
trace(index); // output: 0

index = searchString.indexOf("l");
trace(index); // output: 14

index = searchString.indexOf("i");
trace(index); // output: 6

index = searchString.indexOf("ipsum");
trace(index); // output: 6

index = searchString.indexOf("i", 7);
trace(index); // output: 19

index = searchString.indexOf("z");
trace(index); // output: -1

See also

lastIndexOf (String.lastIndexOf method)

Flash CS3