String extraction

matthxx has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: String extraction by FunkyMonk (Bishop) on Aug 30, 2007 at 18:19 UTC
You want a substring of a string? Use substr `my $letter = substr $string, 0, 1` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: String extraction by suaveant (Parson) on Aug 30, 2007 at 18:20 UTC
substr `my $chr = substr($str,0,1);` [download] ord will do it, too, but returns the ascii value of the first char of the string. - Ant - Some of my best work - (1 2 3)	[reply] [d/l]
Re: String extraction by dsheroh (Monsignor) on Aug 30, 2007 at 19:44 UTC
You could also use `$string =~ /^(.)/; $first_char = $1;` [download] or `@chars = split //, $string; $first_char = @chars[0];` [download] or `$first_char = unpack 'a', $string;` [download] but, in general, `substr` is the better option.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: String extraction by FunkyMonk (Bishop) on Aug 30, 2007 at 23:00 UTC
Or even `my $first_char = (split //, $string)[0];` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: String extraction by gloryhack (Deacon) on Aug 30, 2007 at 18:22 UTC
`#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my $string = 'This is my string.'; my $first_char = substr($string, 0, 1); print "My first character is $first_char\n";` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: String extraction by ikegami (Patriarch) on Aug 30, 2007 at 18:41 UTC
`my $letter = chr(ord($string));` [download]	[reply] [d/l]