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removeFirst

Remove the first character(s) of a string.

Usage

To use in Observable,

removeFirst = require( 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/stdlib-js/string-remove-first@umd/browser.js' )

To vendor stdlib functionality and avoid installing dependency trees for Node.js, you can use the UMD server build:

var removeFirst = require( 'path/to/vendor/umd/string-remove-first/index.js' )

To include the bundle in a webpage,

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/stdlib-js/string-remove-first@umd/browser.js"></script>

If no recognized module system is present, access bundle contents via the global scope:

<script type="text/javascript">
(function () {
    window.removeFirst;
})();
</script>

removeFirst( str[, n][, options] )

Removes the first character(s) of a string.

var out = removeFirst( 'last man standing' );
// returns 'ast man standing'

out = removeFirst( 'Hidden Treasures' );
// returns 'idden Treasures'

The function supports the following options:

mode: type of characters to return. Must be one of the following:
- 'grapheme': grapheme clusters. Appropriate for strings containing visual characters which can span multiple Unicode code points (e.g., emoji).
- 'code_point': Unicode code points. Appropriate for strings containing visual characters which are comprised of more than one Unicode code unit (e.g., ideographic symbols and punctuation and mathematical alphanumerics).
- 'code_unit': UTF-16 code units. Appropriate for strings containing visual characters drawn from the basic multilingual plane (BMP) (e.g., common characters, such as those from the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets).
Default: 'grapheme'.

By default, the function returns the first character. To return the first n characters, provide a second argument specifying the number of characters to return.

var out = removeFirst( 'foo bar', 4 );
// returns 'bar'

out = removeFirst( 'foo bar', 10 );
// returns ''

Notes

By default, the function assumes the general case in which an input string may contain an arbitrary number of grapheme clusters. This assumption comes with a performance cost. Accordingly, if an input string is known to only contain visual characters of a particular type (e.g., only alphanumeric), one can achieve better performance by specifying the appropriate mode option.

Examples

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<body>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/stdlib-js/string-remove-first@umd/browser.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function () {

var str = removeFirst( 'last man standing' );
// returns 'ast man standing'

str = removeFirst( 'presidential election' );
// returns 'residential election'

str = removeFirst( 'JavaScript' );
// returns 'avaScript'

str = removeFirst( 'Hidden Treasures' );
// returns 'idden Treasures'

str = removeFirst( 'The Last of the Mohicans', 4 );
// returns 'Last of the Mohicans'

str = removeFirst( '🐶🐮🐷🐰🐸', 2 );
// returns '🐷🐰🐸'

str = removeFirst( '🐶🐮🐷🐰🐸', 10 );
// returns ''

})();
</script>
</body>
</html>

See Also

@stdlib/string-remove-last: remove the last character(s) of a string.

Notice

This package is part of stdlib, a standard library for JavaScript and Node.js, with an emphasis on numerical and scientific computing. The library provides a collection of robust, high performance libraries for mathematics, statistics, streams, utilities, and more.

For more information on the project, filing bug reports and feature requests, and guidance on how to develop stdlib, see the main project repository.

Community

License

See LICENSE.

Copyright

Copyright © 2016-2025. The Stdlib Authors.

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