GDScript Strings: Split, Replace, Substr and Join

A String holds text. Write it in double or single quotes:

extends Node

func _ready():
	var greeting := "Hello"
	var player := 'Ana'
	var message := greeting + ", " + player + "!"
	print(message)
	print(message.length())

Hello, Ana!
11

+ joins strings, but only strings. "Level " + 3 is an error. Convert numbers with str(): "Level " + str(3). For several values, string formatting is cleaner.

Escapes and Multiline Strings

extends Node

func _ready():
	print("She said \"run\"")
	print("Name:\tAna")
	print("one\ntwo")
	print("""A triple-quoted string
keeps its line breaks.""")

She said "run"
Name:	Ana
one
two
A triple-quoted string
keeps its line breaks.

\n is a new line, \t a tab and \" a quote inside double quotes. Triple quotes keep the line breaks you type.

Indexing and Substrings

extends Node

func _ready():
	var word := "Godot Engine"
	print(word[0], " ", word[-1])
	print(word.substr(6))       # from index 6 to the end
	print(word.substr(0, 5))    # 5 characters from index 0
	print(word.left(3), " ", word.right(3))

G e
Engine
Godot
God ine

Indexes start at 0, and a negative index counts from the end. word[0] = "J" replaces one character in that variable only: a string is a value, not a shared object. Every method below returns a new string and leaves the original as it was.

Searching

extends Node

func _ready():
	var line := "the cat sat on the mat"
	print("cat" in line)
	print(line.contains("dog"))
	print(line.find("at"))       # first position, or -1
	print(line.rfind("at"))      # last position
	print(line.count("the"))
	print(line.begins_with("the"), " ", line.ends_with("mat"))

true
false
5
20
2
true true

Replacing, Splitting and Joining

extends Node

func _ready():
	var csv := "sword,shield,potion"
	var items := csv.split(",")
	print(items)
	print(items.size(), " items, the second is ", items[1])
	print(" | ".join(items))
	print(csv.replace(",", ", "))

["sword", "shield", "potion"]
3 items, the second is shield
sword | shield | potion
sword, shield, potion

split() returns a PackedStringArray. Pass false as the second argument to drop empty parts: "a,,b".split(",", false) gives ["a", "b"].

Trimming, Case and Padding

extends Node

func _ready():
	var raw := "   Ana   "
	print("[", raw.strip_edges(), "]")
	print("game over".to_upper())
	print("GAME OVER".to_lower())
	print("player_name".capitalize())
	print("7".pad_zeros(3))
	print("ab".repeat(3))

[Ana]
GAME OVER
game over
Player Name
007
ababab

strip_edges() removes spaces, tabs and line breaks from both ends. Use it on text a player typed before you compare it.

Comparing Strings

== compares exactly, so case matters. For a case-insensitive check, compare lowercase copies or use nocasecmp_to(), which returns 0 when the strings match:

extends Node

func _ready():
	var answer := "YES"
	print(answer == "yes")
	print(answer.to_lower() == "yes")
	print(answer.nocasecmp_to("yes") == 0)
	print("apple" < "banana")

false
true
true
true

Looping Over Characters

A for loop over a string gives one character at a time:

extends Node

func _ready():
	var vowels := 0
	for letter in "adventure":
		if letter in "aeiou":
			vowels += 1
	print(vowels, " vowels")

4 vowels