Check if String Starts with or Ends with Number in JS

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Borislav Hadzhiev

Last updated: Mar 3, 2024
4 min

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# Table of Contents

  1. Check if a String starts with a Number using JavaScript
  2. Check if a String ends with a Number in JavaScript

# Check if a String starts with a Number using JavaScript

To check if a string starts with a number, call the test() method on a regular expression that matches a number at the beginning of the string.

The test method will return true if the string starts with a number and false otherwise.

index.js
// โœ… Check if a string starts with a number function startsWithNumber(str) { return /^\d/.test(str); } console.log(startsWithNumber('avocado 123')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ false console.log(startsWithNumber('456 avocado')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ true console.log(startsWithNumber('0.3 abc')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ true // ------------------------------------------------------- // โœ…๏ธ Get the number from the start of the string function getNumberAtStart(str) { if (startsWithNumber(str)) { return Number(str.match(/^\d+/)[0]); } return null; } console.log(getNumberAtStart('avocado 123')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ null console.log(getNumberAtStart('456 avocado')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ 456 console.log(getNumberAtStart('0.3 abc')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ 0

check if string starts with number

The code for this article is available on GitHub

The RegExp.test() method returns true if the regular expression is matched in the string and false otherwise.

The forward slashes / / mark the beginning and end of the regular expression.

index.js
function startsWithNumber(str) { return /^\d/.test(str); }

The caret ^ matches the beginning of the input.

The \d special character matches all digits from 0 to 9.

You can also use the [0-9] character class to achieve the same result.

index.js
function startsWithNumber(str) { return /^[0-9]/.test(str); } console.log(startsWithNumber('avocado 123')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ false console.log(startsWithNumber('456 avocado')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ true console.log(startsWithNumber('0.3 abc')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ true

The [0-9] character class matches the digits in the range.

In its entirety, the regular expression matches one or more digits at the beginning of the string.

# Get the number at the start of a String

If you need to get the number at the start of the string, use the String.match() method.

index.js
function startsWithNumber(str) { return /^\d/.test(str); } function getNumberAtStart(str) { if (startsWithNumber(str)) { return Number(str.match(/^\d+/)[0]); } return null; } console.log(getNumberAtStart('avocado 123')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ null console.log(getNumberAtStart('456 avocado')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ 456 console.log(getNumberAtStart('0.3 abc')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ 0

get number at start of string

The code for this article is available on GitHub

The String.match() method matches a string against a regular expression.

The method returns an array containing the matches (if any) or null if no matches are found.

Notice that we added a + at the end of the regex. The plus matches the preceding item (any digit from 0 to 9) one or more times.
index.js
function getNumberAtStart(str) { if (startsWithNumber(str)) { return Number(str.match(/^\d+/)[0]); } return null; }

If the string doesn't start with any digits, the function returns null.

We used our startsWithNumber function to verify that there will be a match before calling the match method.

The last step is to convert the matched string to a number and return the result.

If you ever need help reading a regular expression, check out this regular expression cheat sheet by MDN.

It contains a table with the name and the meaning of each special character with examples.

# Check if a String ends with a Number in JavaScript

To check if a string ends with a number, call the test() method on a regular expression that matches one or more numbers at the end of a string.

The test() method will return true if the string ends with a number and false otherwise.

index.js
// โœ… Check if a String ends with a Number function endsWithNumber(str) { return /[0-9]+$/.test(str); } console.log(endsWithNumber('hello 123')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ true console.log(endsWithNumber('123 apple')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ false console.log(endsWithNumber('test 0.5')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ true // ----------------------------------------------------- // โœ… Get the number at end of the string function getNumberAtEnd(str) { if (endsWithNumber(str)) { return Number(str.match(/[0-9]+$/)[0]); } return null; } console.log(getNumberAtEnd('hello 123')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ 123 console.log(getNumberAtEnd('123 apple')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ null console.log(getNumberAtEnd('test 0.5')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ 5

check if string ends with number

The code for this article is available on GitHub

The RegExp.test() method returns true if the regular expression is matched in the string and false otherwise.

The forward slashes / / mark the beginning and end of the regular expression.

index.js
function endsWithNumber(str) { return /[0-9]+$/.test(str); }

The square brackets [] are called a character class and match any digit from 0 to 9.

The plus + matches the preceding item (the range of digits) one or more times.

The dollar $ sign matches the end of the input.

In its entirety, the regular expression matches one or more digits at the end of a string.

You can also replace the [0-9] range with the \d special character to achieve the same result.

index.js
function endsWithNumber(str) { return /\d+$/.test(str); } console.log(endsWithNumber('hello 123')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ true console.log(endsWithNumber('123 apple')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ false console.log(endsWithNumber('test 0.5')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ true

The \d character matches any digit from 0 to 9.

# Get the number from the end of a string

If you need to get the number from the end of the string, use the String.match() method with the same regular expression.

index.js
function endsWithNumber(str) { return /[0-9]+$/.test(str); } function getNumberAtEnd(str) { if (endsWithNumber(str)) { return Number(str.match(/[0-9]+$/)[0]); } return null; } console.log(getNumberAtEnd('hello 123')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ 123 console.log(getNumberAtEnd('123 apple')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ null console.log(getNumberAtEnd('test 0.5')); // ๐Ÿ‘‰๏ธ 5

get number from end of string

The code for this article is available on GitHub

The String.match() method matches a string against a regular expression.

The method returns an array containing the matches (if any) or null if no matches are found.

We used the endsWithNumber function to verify that there will be a match in advance before calling the match() method.

Lastly, we convert the extracted value to a number using the Number() constructor.

If you ever need help reading a regular expression, check out this regular expression cheat sheet by MDN.

It contains a table with the name and the meaning of each special character with examples.

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Copyright ยฉ 2024 Borislav Hadzhiev