Strings¶

Strings in RuLA represent text values. They are enclosed in double quotes.

Creating Strings¶

Create a string by enclosing text in double quotes:

"Hello World"
"Customer Name"
""

An empty string ("") is valid and represents a string with no characters.

String Manipulation¶

Concatenation¶

Join strings together using + or CONCAT:

"Hello" + " " + "World"     # Results in "Hello World"
CONCAT("Hello", " World")   # Results in "Hello World"

Accessing Characters¶

Access individual characters by index (0-based):

"Hello"[0]      # Returns "H"
"Hello"[4]      # Returns "o"

Slicing¶

Extract a portion of a string:

SLICE("Hello World", 0, 5)     # Returns "Hello"
LEFT("Hello World", 5)         # Returns "Hello"
RIGHT("Hello World", 5)        # Returns "World"

Case Conversion¶

LOWER("Hello World")           # Returns "hello world"
UPPER("Hello World")           # Returns "HELLO WORLD"

Trimming Whitespace¶

TRIM("  hello  ")              # Returns "hello"
TRIM_LEFT("  hello")           # Returns "hello"

Useful String Functions¶

Function	Description	Example
`LEN`	Returns the number of characters	`LEN("abc")` → `3`
`CONCAT`	Joins multiple strings	`CONCAT("a", "b")` → `"ab"`
`LOWER`	Converts to lowercase	`LOWER("ABC")` → `"abc"`
`UPPER`	Converts to uppercase	`UPPER("abc")` → `"ABC"`
`TRIM`	Removes whitespace from both ends	`TRIM(" a ")` → `"a"`
`LEFT`	First n characters	`LEFT("hello", 2)` → `"he"`
`RIGHT`	Last n characters	`RIGHT("hello", 2)` → `"lo"`
`SLICE`	Extract substring	`SLICE("hello", 1, 3)` → `"el"`
`REPLACE`	Replace occurrences	`REPLACE("a-b", "-", "/")` → `"a/b"`
`SPLIT`	Split into list	`SPLIT("a,b", ",")` → `["a", "b"]`
`STARTS_WITH`	Check prefix	`STARTS_WITH("abc", "ab")` → `True`
`ENDS_WITH`	Check suffix	`ENDS_WITH("abc", "bc")` → `True`
`JOIN`	Join list into string	`JOIN(["a", "b"], "-")` → `"a-b"`
`FORMAT_NUMBER`	Format as string	`FORMAT_NUMBER(3.14159, 2)` → `"3.14"`
`LEVENSHTEIN`	Edit distance	`LEVENSHTEIN("kitten", "sitting")` → `3`
`PAD_LEFT`	Pad on left	`PAD_LEFT("5", 3, "0")` → `"005"`
`PAD_RIGHT`	Pad on right	`PAD_RIGHT("5", 3, "0")` → `"500"`
`TRIM_LEFT`	Removes whitespace from start	`TRIM_LEFT(" hello")` → `"hello"`

String Comparison¶

Compare strings using standard operators:

"abc" = "abc"           # True (exact match)
"abc" != "def"          # True
"abc" contains "b"      # True
"abc" matches "a.*c"    # True (regex match)