.substring()

The .substring() method returns a part of the string from some starting index to an (optional) ending index. If an ending index is not provided, the substring will be from the starting index to the end of the original string.

string.substring(startIndex);
string.substring(startIndex, endIndex);

.substring() returns characters from startIndex up to, but not including, the character at endIndex.

If endIndex is omitted, .substring() returns characters from startIndex to the end of the string.

If startIndex and endIndex are equal, .substring() returns an empty string.

A StringIndexOutOfBoundsException is thrown if any of the following are true:

• startIndex is greater than endIndex
• startIndex is greater than the length of the original string
• startIndex or endIndex is negative

The following example uses .substring() to display a substring of a given string.

// Example.java
public class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String blurb = "Java is cool!";
    // Printing last 5 characters of blurb
    System.out.println(blurb.substring(blurb.length() - 5));
    // Printing first 4 characters of blurb
    System.out.println(blurb.substring(0, 5));
  }
}

This produces the following output:

cool!
Java