← SPL reference

String slicing (string.slice)

SPL substring rules are intentionally not Python’s s[a:b]. Bounds use a mixed convention so short examples read naturally.

string.slice(lo, hi, string)

• Partial end — use sentinel string.sliceMax() for the upper bound:
  Second argument becomes “through the last character”; the first numeric bound is the start index in zero-based indexing (same idea as Python’s slice start). Example: string.slice(2, string.sliceMax(), "hello") → "llo".
• Partial start — use string.sliceMin() for the lower bound:
  Slice from the beginning through the given end index in zero-based inclusive form. Example: string.slice(string.sliceMin(), 2, "hello") → "hel".
• Whole string copy — string.slice(string.sliceMin(), string.sliceMax(), s).
• Two numeric bounds — different from Python: first number is 1-based starting position (first character = 1), second is 0-based inclusive end index. The substring is text[(lo-1) .. hi] in inclusive character terms.
  Example with "hello": string.slice(2, 4, "hello") → characters from position 2 through index 4 (0-based inclusive) → "ello".

Shorthand: [var] <- sl(lo, hi);

Parses as “read the current string in var, slice with the same string.slice rules, assign back”. Requires var to already hold a string.

txt.setVar("hello");

[txt] <- sl(2, string.sliceMax());

print.string(txt);   # llo

Implementation: someProgrammingLanguage/main.py (_spl_string_slice), searchable as string.slice / string.sliceMin / string.sliceMax in the reference table.