Get the first N characters of a String in JavaScript

Get the first N characters of a String #

Use the String.slice() method to get the first N characters of a string, e.g. str.slice(0, 3). The slice() method takes the start and stop indexes as parameters and returns a new string containing a slice of the original string.

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const str = 'Hello World';

const first3 = str.slice(0, 3); // 👉️ Hel
console.log(first3);

const first2 = str.slice(0, 2); // 👉️ He
console.log(first2);

The String.slice method doesn't mutate the original string, it returns a new string. Strings are immutable in JavaScript.

The first parameter we passed to the String.slice method is the start index - the index of the first character to be included in the new string.

The second parameter is the end index - go up to but not including this character.

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const str = 'Hello World';

const first100 = str.slice(0, 100); // 👉️ Hello World
console.log(first100);

We tried to get the first 100 characters of a string that only contains 11 characters. As a result, the slice method returned the whole string.

If you want to read about the difference between String.substring and String.slice, check out this section of the MDN docs.

Further Reading #

• Check if Array of Strings contains a Substring in JS
• Replace a String case insensitive in JavaScript
• Check if String contains specific Character in JavaScript
• Split a String only on the First Occurrence of a Character
• Extract a Number from a String in JavaScript
• Get the first N words from a String in JavaScript
• How to check if a String is Empty in JavaScript
• Get the First and Last Characters of a String in JavaScript
• Get the last Character of a String in JavaScript
• Get a Substring between 2 Characters in JavaScript
• How to Remove all Line Breaks from a String in JavaScript
• Remove all Whitespace from a String in JavaScript