How to get nth character in a string in Javascript?

Question

I've a string (let's say "Hello World") and I want to save the first characters of it in different variables (ex. character1 = "H", character2 = "e"...).

How do I get the nth character in the string?

Thanks!

Bonus: How could I do it with Python? Would it be better than doing it client-side?

Answer 1

Let me summarize the possibilities

given:

var string = "HAI";
/* and */
var index = 1; // number ∈ [0..string.length), rounded down to integer

• string.charAt(index) returns "A" (preferred)
• string[index] returns "A" (non-standard)
• string.substring(index, index+1) returns "A" (over-complex solution but works)
• string.substr(index, 1) returns "A" (non-standard approach to above)

Answer 2

Not sure if this is cross-browser safe, but you can use array-like indexing:

"Hello"[0] -> "H"

The syntax is exactly the same in Python.

Answer 3

Use the charAt method. As far as client or server, it depends on the context. But you should not trust client input.