startsWith
startsWith evaluates if the expression starts with a substring that
you specify. If the expression starts with the substring, startsWith
returns true, and otherwise it returns false.
Syntax
startsWith(expression,substring,string-comparison-mode)
Arguments
- expression
-
The expression must be a string. It can be the name of a field that uses the string data type, a literal value like
'12 Main Street', or a call to another function that outputs a string. - substring
-
The set of characters to check against the expression. The substring can occur one or more times in the expression.
- string-comparison-mode
-
(Optional) Specifies the string comparison mode to use:
-
CASE_SENSITIVE– String comparisons are case-sensitive. -
CASE_INSENSITIVE– String comparisons are case-insensitive.
This value defaults to
CASE_SENSITIVEwhen blank. -
Return type
Boolean
Examples
Default case sensitive example
The following case sensitive example evaluates if state_nm
startsWith New.
startsWith(state_nm,"New")
The following are the given field values.
New York new york
For these field values, the following values are returned.
true false
Case insensitive example
The following case insensitive example evaluates if state_nm
startsWith new.
startsWith(state_nm,"new", CASE_INSENSITIVE)
The following are the given field values.
New York new york
For these field values, the following values are returned.
true true
Example with conditional statements
The startsWith function can be used as the conditional
statement within the following If functions: avgIf, minIf, distinct_countIf, countIf,
maxIf, medianIf, stdevIf,
stdevpIf,
sumIf, varIf, and varpIf.
The following example sums Sales only if state_nm starts with
New.
sumIf(Sales,startsWith(state_nm,"New"))
Does NOT contain example
The conditional NOT operator can be used to evaluate if the
expression does not start with the specified substring.
NOT(startsWith(state_nm,"New"))
Example using numeric values
Numeric values can be used in the expression or substring arguments by
applying the toString function.
startsWith(state_nm, toString(5) )