String Functions

The XPath editor context menu contains string functions used in expressions.

Table 1. String functions
Name	Description
concat	Returns the concatenation of its arguments.
contains	Returns true if the first argument string contains the second argument string. Otherwise, returns false.
normalize-space	Removes leading and trailing whitespace from a string and replaces internal sequences of whitespace with a single space character.
starts-with	Returns true if the first argument string starts with the second argument string. Otherwise, returns false.
string	Converts an object to a string.
string-length	Returns the number of characters in a string value.
substring	Returns the substring of the first argument starting at the position specified in the second argument with the length specified in the third argument. Example: substring('12345',2,3) returns '234'.
substring-to-end	Returns the substring of the first argument starting at the position specified in the second argument and continues to the end of the string. Example: substring ('12345',2) returns '2345'.
substring-after	Returns the substring of the first argument string that follows the first occurrence of the second argument string in the first argument string, or the empty string if the first argument string does not contain the second argument string. For example, substring-after('1999/04/01','/') returns 04/01, and substring-after('1999/04/01', 19) returns 99/04/01.
substring-before	Returns the substring of the first argument string that precedes the first occurrence of the second argument string in the first argument string, or the empty string if the first argument string, or the empty string if the first argument string does not contain the second argument string. For example, substring-before('1999/04/01','/') returns 1999.
to lower case	Converts the contents of a string to lower case.
to upper case	Converts the contents of a string to upper case.
translate	Returns the first argument string with occurrences of characters in the second argument string replaced by the character at the corresponding position in the third argument string.