TypeScript - get first 2 characters from string

In this short article, we would like to show you how to get the first 2 characters from a string in TypeScript.

The below example shows the use of .substring() method which returns the part of a string between the 0 and 2 indexes.

Runnable example:

xxxxxxxxxx

const text: string = '1234';

const substring: string = text.substring(0, 2);

​

console.log('text: ' + text); // 1234

console.log('substring: ' + substring); // 12

Output:

xxxxxxxxxx

text: 1234

substring: 12

In the second example, we can see the result when we want to get a substring from a string in various cases (like a string shorter than the number of characters we want to get or an empty string).

Runnable example:

xxxxxxxxxx

// true means string is empty

​

console.log(''.substring(0, 2) === ''); // empty

console.log('1'.substring(0, 2)); // 1

console.log('12'.substring(0, 2)); // 12

console.log('123'.substring(0, 2)); // 12

console.log('1234'.substring(0, 2)); // 12

Output:

xxxxxxxxxx

true

1

12

12

12

Note:
Don't use substr() because it's a non-standard method.