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# QString Class Reference

The QString class provides an abstraction of Unicode text and the classic C '\0'-terminated char array. More...

All the functions in this class are reentrant when Qt is built with thread support.

`#include <qstring.h>`

List of all member functions.

## Public Members

- QString ()
- QString ( QChar ch )
- QString ( const QString & s )
- QString ( const QByteArray & ba )
- QString ( const QChar * unicode, uint length )
- QString ( const char * str )
- QString ( const std::string & str )
- ~QString ()
- QString & operator= ( const QString & s )
- QString & operator= ( const char * str )
- QString & operator= ( const std::string & s )
- QString & operator= ( const QCString & cs )
- QString & operator= ( QChar c )
- QString & operator= ( char c )
- bool isNull () const
- bool isEmpty () const
- uint length () const
- void truncate ( uint newLen )
- QString & fill ( QChar c, int len = -1 )
- QString copy () const (obsolete)
- QString arg ( long a, int fieldwidth = 0, int base = 10 ) const
- QString arg ( ulong a, int fieldwidth = 0, int base = 10 ) const
- QString arg ( int a, int fieldwidth = 0, int base = 10 ) const
- QString arg ( uint a, int fieldwidth = 0, int base = 10 ) const
- QString arg ( short a, int fieldwidth = 0, int base = 10 ) const
- QString arg ( ushort a, int fieldwidth = 0, int base = 10 ) const
- QString arg ( char a, int fieldwidth = 0 ) const
- QString arg ( QChar a, int fieldwidth = 0 ) const
- QString arg ( const QString & a, int fieldwidth = 0 ) const
- QString arg ( double a, int fieldwidth = 0, char fmt = 'g', int prec = -1 ) const
- QString & sprintf ( const char * cformat, ... )
- int find ( QChar c, int index = 0, bool cs = TRUE ) const
- int find ( char c, int index = 0, bool cs = TRUE ) const
- int find ( const QString & str, int index = 0, bool cs = TRUE ) const
- int find ( const QRegExp & rx, int index = 0 ) const
- int find ( const char * str, int index = 0 ) const
- int findRev ( QChar c, int index = -1, bool cs = TRUE ) const
- int findRev ( char c, int index = -1, bool cs = TRUE ) const
- int findRev ( const QString & str, int index = -1, bool cs = TRUE ) const
- int findRev ( const QRegExp & rx, int index = -1 ) const
- int findRev ( const char * str, int index = -1 ) const
- int contains ( QChar c, bool cs = TRUE ) const
- int contains ( char c, bool cs = TRUE ) const
- int contains ( const char * str, bool cs = TRUE ) const
- int contains ( const QString & str, bool cs = TRUE ) const
- int contains ( const QRegExp & rx ) const
- enum SectionFlags { SectionDefault = 0x00, SectionSkipEmpty = 0x01, SectionIncludeLeadingSep = 0x02, SectionIncludeTrailingSep = 0x04, SectionCaseInsensitiveSeps = 0x08 }
- QString section ( QChar sep, int start, int end = 0xffffffff, int flags = SectionDefault ) const
- QString section ( char sep, int start, int end = 0xffffffff, int flags = SectionDefault ) const
- QString section ( const char * sep, int start, int end = 0xffffffff, int flags = SectionDefault ) const
- QString section ( const QString & sep, int start, int end = 0xffffffff, int flags = SectionDefault ) const
- QString section ( const QRegExp & reg, int start, int end = 0xffffffff, int flags = SectionDefault ) const
- QString left ( uint len ) const
- QString right ( uint len ) const
- QString mid ( uint index, uint len = 0xffffffff ) const
- QString leftJustify ( uint width, QChar fill = ' ', bool truncate = FALSE ) const
- QString rightJustify ( uint width, QChar fill = ' ', bool truncate = FALSE ) const
- QString lower () const
- QString upper () const
- QString stripWhiteSpace () const
- QString simplifyWhiteSpace () const
- QString & insert ( uint index, const QString & s )
- QString & insert ( uint index, const QChar * s, uint len )
- QString & insert ( uint index, QChar c )
- QString & insert ( uint index, char c )
- QString & append ( char ch )
- QString & append ( QChar ch )
- QString & append ( const QString & str )
- QString & append ( const QByteArray & str )
- QString & append ( const char * str )
- QString & append ( const std::string & str )
- QString & prepend ( char ch )
- QString & prepend ( QChar ch )
- QString & prepend ( const QString & s )
- QString & prepend ( const QByteArray & s )
- QString & prepend ( const char * s )
- QString & prepend ( const std::string & s )
- QString & remove ( uint index, uint len )
- QString & remove ( QChar c )
- QString & remove ( char c )
- QString & remove ( const QString & str )
- QString & remove ( const QRegExp & rx )
- QString & remove ( const char * str )
- QString & replace ( uint index, uint len, const QString & s )
- QString & replace ( uint index, uint len, const QChar * s, uint slen )
- QString & replace ( uint index, uint len, QChar c )
- QString & replace ( uint index, uint len, char c )
- QString & replace ( QChar c, const QString & after )
- QString & replace ( char c, const QString & after )
- QString & replace ( const QString & before, const QString & after )
- QString & replace ( const QRegExp & rx, const QString & str )
- QString & replace ( QChar c1, QChar c2 )
- short toShort ( bool * ok = 0, int base = 10 ) const
- ushort toUShort ( bool * ok = 0, int base = 10 ) const
- int toInt ( bool * ok = 0, int base = 10 ) const
- uint toUInt ( bool * ok = 0, int base = 10 ) const
- long toLong ( bool * ok = 0, int base = 10 ) const
- ulong toULong ( bool * ok = 0, int base = 10 ) const
- float toFloat ( bool * ok = 0 ) const
- double toDouble ( bool * ok = 0 ) const
- QString & setNum ( short n, int base = 10 )
- QString & setNum ( ushort n, int base = 10 )
- QString & setNum ( int n, int base = 10 )
- QString & setNum ( uint n, int base = 10 )
- QString & setNum ( long n, int base = 10 )
- QString & setNum ( ulong n, int base = 10 )
- QString & setNum ( float n, char f = 'g', int prec = 6 )
- QString & setNum ( double n, char f = 'g', int prec = 6 )
- void setExpand ( uint index, QChar c ) (obsolete)
- QString & operator+= ( const QString & str )
- QString & operator+= ( const QByteArray & str )
- QString & operator+= ( const char * str )
- QString & operator+= ( const std::string & str )
- QString & operator+= ( QChar c )
- QString & operator+= ( char c )
- QChar at ( uint i ) const
- QChar operator[] ( int i ) const
- QCharRef at ( uint i )
- QCharRef operator[] ( int i )
- QChar constref ( uint i ) const
- QChar & ref ( uint i )
- const QChar * unicode () const
- const char * ascii () const
- const char * latin1 () const
- QCString utf8 () const
- QCString local8Bit () const
- bool operator! () const
- operator const char * () const
- operator std::string () const
- const unsigned short * ucs2 () const
- QString & setUnicode ( const QChar * unicode, uint len )
- QString & setUnicodeCodes ( const ushort * unicode_as_ushorts, uint len )
- QString & setAscii ( const char * str, int len = -1 )
- QString & setLatin1 ( const char * str, int len = -1 )
- int compare ( const QString & s ) const
- int localeAwareCompare ( const QString & s ) const
- void compose ()
- const char * data () const (obsolete)
- bool startsWith ( const QString & s ) const
- bool endsWith ( const QString & s ) const
- void setLength ( uint newLen )

## Static Public Members

- QString number ( long n, int base = 10 )
- QString number ( ulong n, int base = 10 )
- QString number ( int n, int base = 10 )
- QString number ( uint n, int base = 10 )
- QString number ( double n, char f = 'g', int prec = 6 )
- QString fromAscii ( const char * ascii, int len = -1 )
- QString fromLatin1 ( const char * chars, int len = -1 )
- QString fromUtf8 ( const char * utf8, int len = -1 )
- QString fromLocal8Bit ( const char * local8Bit, int len = -1 )
- QString fromUcs2 ( const unsigned short * str )
- int compare ( const QString & s1, const QString & s2 )
- int localeAwareCompare ( const QString & s1, const QString & s2 )

## Related Functions

- bool operator== ( const QString & s1, const QString & s2 )
- bool operator== ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )
- bool operator== ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )
- bool operator!= ( const QString & s1, const QString & s2 )
- bool operator!= ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )
- bool operator!= ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )
- bool operator< ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )
- bool operator< ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )
- bool operator<= ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )
- bool operator<= ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )
- bool operator> ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )
- bool operator> ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )
- bool operator>= ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )
- bool operator>= ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )
- const QString operator+ ( const QString & s1, const QString & s2 )
- const QString operator+ ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )
- const QString operator+ ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )
- const QString operator+ ( const QString & s, char c )
- const QString operator+ ( char c, const QString & s )
- QDataStream & operator<< ( QDataStream & s, const QString & str )
- QDataStream & operator>> ( QDataStream & s, QString & str )

## Detailed Description

The QString class provides an abstraction of Unicode text and the classic C '\0'-terminated char array.

QString uses implicit sharing, which makes it very efficient and easy to use.

In all of the QString methods that take `const char *` parameters, the `const char *` is interpreted as a classic C-style '\0'-terminated ASCII string. It is legal for the `const char *` parameter to be 0. If the `const char *` is not '\0'-terminated, the results are undefined. Functions that copy classic C strings into a QString will not copy the terminating '\0' character. The QChar array of the QString (as returned by unicode()) is generally not terminated by a '\0'. If you need to pass a QString to a function that requires a C '\0'-terminated string use latin1().

A QString that has not been assigned to anything is null, i.e. both the length and data pointer is 0. A QString that references the empty string ("", a single '\0' char) is empty. Both null and empty QStrings are legal parameters to the methods. Assigning `(const char *) 0` to QString gives a null QString. For convenience, QString::null is a null QString. When sorting, empty strings come first, followed by non-empty strings, followed by null strings. We recommend using `if ( !str.isNull() )` to check for a non-null string rather than `if ( !str )`; see operator!() for an explanation.

Note that if you find that you are mixing usage of QCString, QString, and QByteArray, this causes lots of unnecessary copying and might indicate that the true nature of the data you are dealing with is uncertain. If the data is '\0'-terminated 8-bit data, use QCString; if it is unterminated (i.e. contains '\0's) 8-bit data, use QByteArray; if it is text, use QString.

Lists of strings are handled by the QStringList class. You can split a string into a list of strings using QStringList::split(), and join a list of strings into a single string with an optional separator using QStringList::join(). You can obtain a list of strings from a string list that contain a particular substring or that match a particular regex using QStringList::grep().

Note for C programmers

Due to C++'s type system and the fact that QString is implicitly shared, QStrings may be treated like ints or other simple base types. For example:

        QString boolToString( bool b )
        {
            QString result;
            if ( b )
                result = "True";
            else
                result = "False";
            return result;
        }

The variable, result, is an auto variable allocated on the stack. When return is called, because we're returning by value, The copy constructor is called and a copy of the string is returned. (No actual copying takes place thanks to the implicit sharing, see below.)

Throughout Qt's source code you will encounter QString usages like this:

        QString func( const QString& input )
        {
            QString output = input;
            // process output
            return output;
        }

The 'copying' of input to output is almost as fast as copying a pointer because behind the scenes copying is achieved by incrementing a reference count. QString (like all Qt's implicitly shared classes) operates on a copy-on-write basis, only copying if an instance is actually changed.

If you wish to create a deep copy of a QString without losing any Unicode information then you should use QDeepCopy.

See also QChar, QCString, QByteArray, QConstString, Implicitly and Explicitly Shared Classes, Text Related Classes, and Non-GUI Classes.

## Member Type Documentation

### QString::SectionFlags

- `QString::SectionDefault` - Empty fields are counted, leading and trailing separators are not included, and the separator is compared case sensitively.
- `QString::SectionSkipEmpty` - Treat empty fields as if they don't exist, i.e. they are not considered as far as start and end are concerned.
- `QString::SectionIncludeLeadingSep` - Include the leading separator (if any) in the result string.
- `QString::SectionIncludeTrailingSep` - Include the trailing separator (if any) in the result string.
- `QString::SectionCaseInsensitiveSeps` - Compare the separator case-insensitively.

Any of the last four values can be OR-ed together to form a flag.

See also section().

## Member Function Documentation

### QString::QString ()

Constructs a null string, i.e. both the length and data pointer are 0.

See also isNull().

### QString::QString ( QChar ch )

Constructs a string of length one, containing the character ch.

### QString::QString ( const QString & s )

Constructs an implicitly shared copy of s. This is very fast since it only involves incrementing a reference count.

### QString::QString ( const QByteArray & ba )

Constructs a string that is a deep copy of ba interpreted as a classic C string.

### QString::QString ( const QChar * unicode, uint length )

Constructs a string that is a deep copy of the first length characters in the QChar array.

If unicode and length are 0, then a null string is created.

If only unicode is 0, the string is empty but has length characters of space preallocated: QString expands automatically anyway, but this may speed up some cases a little. We recommend using the plain constructor and setLength() for this purpose since it will result in more readable code.

See also isNull() and setLength().

### QString::QString ( const char * str )

Constructs a string that is a deep copy of str, interpreted as a classic C string.

If str is 0, then a null string is created.

This is a cast constructor, but it is perfectly safe: converting a Latin1 const char* to QString preserves all the information. You can disable this constructor by defining `QT_NO_CAST_ASCII` when you compile your applications. You can also make QString objects by using setLatin1(), fromLatin1(), fromLocal8Bit(), and fromUtf8(). Or whatever encoding is appropriate for the 8-bit data you have.

See also isNull().

### QString::QString ( const std::string & str )

Constructs a string that is a deep copy of str.

This is the same as fromAscii(str).

### QString::~QString ()

Destroys the string and frees the string's data if this is the last reference to the string.

### QString & QString::append ( const QString & str )

Appends str to the string and returns a reference to the result.

            string = "Test";
            string.append( "ing" );        // string == "Testing"

Equivalent to operator+=().

Example: dirview/dirview.cpp.

### QString & QString::append ( char ch )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Appends character ch to the string and returns a reference to the result.

Equivalent to operator+=().

### QString & QString::append ( QChar ch )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Appends character ch to the string and returns a reference to the result.

Equivalent to operator+=().

### QString & QString::append ( const QByteArray & str )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Appends str to the string and returns a reference to the result.

Equivalent to operator+=().

### QString & QString::append ( const char * str )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Appends str to the string and returns a reference to the result.

Equivalent to operator+=().

### QString & QString::append ( const std::string & str )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Appends str to the string and returns a reference to the result.

Equivalent to operator+=().

### QString QString::arg ( const QString & a, int fieldwidth = 0 ) const

This function will return a string that replaces the lowest numbered occurrence of `%1`, `%2`, ..., `%9` with a.

The fieldwidth value specifies the minimum amount of space that a is padded to. A positive value will produce right-aligned text, whereas a negative value will produce left-aligned text.

The following example shows how we could create a 'status' string when processing a list of files:

        QString status = QString( "Processing file %1 of %2: %3" )
                            .arg( i )         // current file's number
                            .arg( total )     // number of files to process
                            .arg( fileName ); // current file's name

It is generally fine to use filenames and numbers as we have done in the example above. But note that using arg() to construct natural language sentences does not usually translate well into other languages because sentence structure and word order often differ between languages.

If there is no place marker (`%1` or `%2`, etc.), a warning message (qWarning()) is output and the text is appended at the end of the string. We recommend that the correct number of place markers is always used in production code.

### QString QString::arg ( long a, int fieldwidth = 0, int base = 10 ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

The fieldwidth value specifies the minimum amount of space that a is padded to. A positive value will produce a right-aligned number, whereas a negative value will produce a left-aligned number.

a is expressed in base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

            QString str;
            str = QString( "Decimal 63 is %1 in hexadecimal" )
                    .arg( 63, 0, 16 );
            // str == "Decimal 63 is 3f in hexadecimal"

### QString QString::arg ( ulong a, int fieldwidth = 0, int base = 10 ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

a is expressed in base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

### QString QString::arg ( int a, int fieldwidth = 0, int base = 10 ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

a is expressed in base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

### QString QString::arg ( uint a, int fieldwidth = 0, int base = 10 ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

a is expressed in base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

### QString QString::arg ( short a, int fieldwidth = 0, int base = 10 ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

a is expressed in base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

### QString QString::arg ( ushort a, int fieldwidth = 0, int base = 10 ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

a is expressed in base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

### QString QString::arg ( char a, int fieldwidth = 0 ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

a is assumed to be in the Latin1 character set.

### QString QString::arg ( QChar a, int fieldwidth = 0 ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

### QString QString::arg ( double a, int fieldwidth = 0, char fmt = 'g', int prec = -1 ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Argument a is formatted according to the fmt format specified, which is 'g' by default and can be any of the following:

Format | Meaning
--- | ---
`e` | format as [-]9.9e[+|-]999
`E` | format as [-]9.9E[+|-]999
`f` | format as [-]9.9
`g` | use `e` or `f` format, whichever is the most concise
`G` | use `E` or `f` format, whichever is the most concise

With 'e', 'E', and 'f', prec is the number of digits after the decimal point. With 'g' and 'G', prec is the maximum number of significant digits (trailing zeroes are omitted).

            double d = 12.34;
            QString ds = QString( "'E' format, precision 3, gives %1" )
                            .arg( d, 0, 'E', 3 );
            // ds == "1.234E+001"

### const char * QString::ascii () const

Returns an 8-bit ASCII representation of the string.

If a codec has been set using QTextCodec::codecForCStrings(), it is used to convert Unicode to 8-bit char. Otherwise, this function does the same as latin1().

See also fromAscii(), latin1(), utf8(), and local8Bit().

Example: network/networkprotocol/nntp.cpp.

### QChar QString::at ( uint i ) const

Returns the character at index i, or 0 if i is beyond the length of the string.

            const QString string( "abcdefgh" );
            QChar ch = string.at( 4 );
            // ch == 'e'

If the QString is not const (i.e. const QString) or const& (i.e. const QString &), then the non-const overload of at() will be used instead.

### QCharRef QString::at ( uint i )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

The function returns a reference to the character at index i. The resulting reference can then be assigned to, or used immediately, but it will become invalid once further modifications are made to the original string.

If i is beyond the length of the string then the string is expanded with QChar::null.

### int QString::compare ( const QString & s1, const QString & s2 )`[static]`

Lexically compares s1 with s2 and returns an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero if s1 is less than, equal to, or greater than s2.

The comparison is based exclusively on the numeric Unicode values of the characters and is very fast, but is not what a human would expect. Consider sorting user-interface strings with QString::localeAwareCompare().

            int a = QString::compare( "def", "abc" );   // a > 0
            int b = QString::compare( "abc", "def" );   // b < 0
            int c = QString::compare(" abc", "abc" );   // c == 0

### int QString::compare ( const QString & s ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Lexically compares this string with s and returns an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero if it is less than, equal to, or greater than s.

### void QString::compose ()

Warning: This function is not supported in Qt 3.x. It is provided for experimental and illustrative purposes only. It is mainly of interest to those experimenting with Arabic and other composition-rich texts.

Applies possible ligatures to a QString. Useful when composition-rich text requires rendering with glyph-poor fonts, but it also makes compositions such as QChar(0x0041) ('A') and QChar(0x0308) (Unicode accent diaresis), giving QChar(0x00c4) (German A Umlaut).

### QChar QString::constref ( uint i ) const

Returns the QChar at index i by value.

Equivalent to at(i).

See also ref().

### int QString::contains ( QChar c, bool cs = TRUE ) const

Returns the number of times the character c occurs in the string.

If cs is TRUE, the search is case sensitive; otherwise the search is case insensitive.

        QString string( "Trolltech and Qt" );
        int i = string.contains( 't', FALSE );  // i == 3

Examples: fileiconview/qfileiconview.cpp and mdi/application.cpp.

### int QString::contains ( char c, bool cs = TRUE ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

### int QString::contains ( const char * str, bool cs = TRUE ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns the number of times the string str occurs in the string.

If cs is TRUE, the search is case sensitive; otherwise the search is case insensitive.

### int QString::contains ( const QString & str, bool cs = TRUE ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns the number of times str occurs in the string.

If cs is TRUE, the search is case sensitive; otherwise the search is case insensitive.

This function counts overlapping strings, so in the example below, there are two instances of "ana" in "bananas".

        QString str( "bananas" );
        int i = str.contains( "ana" );  // i == 2

See also findRev().

### int QString::contains ( const QRegExp & rx ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns the number of times the regexp, rx, matches in the string.

This function counts overlapping matches, so in the example below, there are four instances of "ana" or "ama".

            QString str = "banana and panama";
            QRegExp rxp = QRegExp( "a[nm]a", TRUE, FALSE );
            int i = str.contains( rxp );    // i == 4

See also find() and findRev().

### QString QString::copy () const

This function is obsolete. It is provided to keep old source working. We strongly advise against using it in new code.

In Qt 2.0 and later, all calls to this function are needless. Just remove them.

### const char * QString::data () const

This function is obsolete. It is provided to keep old source working. We strongly advise against using it in new code.

Returns a pointer to a '\0'-terminated classic C string.

In Qt 1.x, this returned a char* allowing direct manipulation of the string as a sequence of bytes. In Qt 2.x where QString is a Unicode string, char* conversion constructs a temporary string, and hence direct character operations are meaningless.

### bool QString::endsWith ( const QString & s ) const

Returns TRUE if the string ends with s; otherwise returns FALSE.

See also startsWith().

Example: chart/main.cpp.

### QString & QString::fill ( QChar c, int len = -1 )

Fills the string with len characters of value c, and returns a reference to the string.

If len is negative (the default), the current string length is used.

            QString str;
            str.fill( 'g', 5 );      // string == "ggggg"

### int QString::find ( const QRegExp & rx, int index = 0 ) const

Finds the first match of the regular expression rx, starting from position index. If index is -1, the search starts at the last character; if -2, at the next to last character and so on. (See findRev() for searching backwards.)

Returns the position of the first match of rx or -1 if no match was found.

            QString string( "bananas" );
            int i = string.find( QRegExp("an"), 0 );    // i == 1

See also findRev(), replace(), and contains().

Example: network/mail/smtp.cpp.

### int QString::find ( QChar c, int index = 0, bool cs = TRUE ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Finds the first occurrence of the character c, starting at position index. If index is -1, the search starts at the last character; if -2, at the next to last character and so on. (See findRev() for searching backwards.)

If cs is TRUE, the search is case sensitive; otherwise the search is case insensitive.

Returns the position of c or -1 if c could not be found.

### int QString::find ( char c, int index = 0, bool cs = TRUE ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Find character c starting from position index.

If cs is TRUE, the search is case sensitive; otherwise the search is case insensitive.

### int QString::find ( const QString & str, int index = 0, bool cs = TRUE ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Finds the first occurrence of the string str, starting at position index. If index is -1, the search starts at the last character, if it is -2, at the next to last character and so on. (See findRev() for searching backwards.)

If cs is TRUE, the search is case sensitive; otherwise the search is case insensitive.

Returns the position of str or -1 if str could not be found.

### int QString::find ( const char * str, int index = 0 ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Equivalent to find(QString(str), index).

### int QString::findRev ( const char * str, int index = -1 ) const

Equivalent to findRev(QString(str), index).

### int QString::findRev ( QChar c, int index = -1, bool cs = TRUE ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Finds the first occurrence of the character c, starting at position index and searching backwards. If the index is -1, the search starts at the last character, if it is -2, at the next to last character and so on.

Returns the position of c or -1 if c could not be found.

If cs is TRUE, the search is case sensitive; otherwise the search is case insensitive.

            QString string( "bananas" );
            int i = string.findRev( 'a' );      // i == 5

### int QString::findRev ( char c, int index = -1, bool cs = TRUE ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Find character c starting from position index and working backwards.

If cs is TRUE, the search is case sensitive; otherwise the search is case insensitive.

### int QString::findRev ( const QString & str, int index = -1, bool cs = TRUE ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Finds the first occurrence of the string str, starting at position index and searching backwards. If the index is -1, the search starts at the last character, if it is -2, at the next to last character and so on.

Returns the position of str or -1 if str could not be found.

If cs is TRUE, the search is case sensitive; otherwise the search is case insensitive.

        QString string("bananas");
        int i = string.findRev( "ana" );      // i == 3

### int QString::findRev ( const QRegExp & rx, int index = -1 ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Finds the first match of the regexp rx, starting at position index and searching backwards. If the index is -1, the search starts at the last character, if it is -2, at the next to last character and so on. (See findRev() for searching backwards.)

Returns the position of the match or -1 if no match was found.

            QString string( "bananas" );
            int i = string.findRev( QRegExp("an") );      // i == 3

See also find().

### QString QString::fromAscii ( const char * ascii, int len = -1 )`[static]`

Returns the Unicode string decoded from the first len characters of ascii, ignoring the rest of ascii. If len is -1 then the length of ascii is used. If len is bigger than the length of ascii then it will use the length of ascii.

If a codec has been set using QTextCodec::codecForCStrings(), it is used to convert Unicode to 8-bit char. Otherwise, this function does the same as fromLatin1().

This is the same as the QString(const char*) constructor, but you can make that constructor invisible if you compile with the define `QT_NO_CAST_ASCII`, in which case you can explicitly create a QString from 8-bit ASCII text using this function.

            QString str = QString::fromAscii( "123456789", 5 );
            // str == "12345"

### QString QString::fromLatin1 ( const char * chars, int len = -1 )`[static]`

Returns the Unicode string decoded from the first len characters of chars, ignoring the rest of chars. If len is -1 then the length of chars is used. If len is bigger than the length of chars then it will use the length of chars.

See also fromAscii().

Examples: listbox/listbox.cpp and network/mail/smtp.cpp.

### QString QString::fromLocal8Bit ( const char * local8Bit, int len = -1 )`[static]`

Returns the Unicode string decoded from the first len characters of local8Bit, ignoring the rest of local8Bit. If len is -1 then the length of local8Bit is used. If len is bigger than the length of local8Bit then it will use the length of local8Bit.

            QString str = QString::fromLocal8Bit( "123456789", 5 );
            // str == "12345"

local8Bit is assumed to be encoded in a locale-specific format.

See QTextCodec for more diverse coding/decoding of Unicode strings.

### QString QString::fromUcs2 ( const unsigned short * str )`[static]`

Constructs a string that is a deep copy of str, interpreted as a UCS2 encoded, zero terminated, Unicode string.

If str is 0, then a null string is created.

See also isNull().

### QString QString::fromUtf8 ( const char * utf8, int len = -1 )`[static]`

Returns the Unicode string decoded from the first len characters of utf8, ignoring the rest of utf8. If len is -1 then the length of utf8 is used. If len is bigger than the length of utf8 then it will use the length of utf8.

            QString str = QString::fromUtf8( "123456789", 5 );
            // str == "12345"

See QTextCodec for more diverse coding/decoding of Unicode strings.

Example: fonts/simple-qfont-demo/viewer.cpp.

### QString & QString::insert ( uint index, const QString & s )

Inserts s into the string at position index.

If index is beyond the end of the string, the string is extended with spaces to length index and s is then appended and returns a reference to the string.

            QString string( "I like fish" );
            str = string.insert( 2, "don't " );
            // str == "I don't like fish"

See also remove() and replace().

Examples: themes/themes.cpp and xform/xform.cpp.

### QString & QString::insert ( uint index, const QChar * s, uint len )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Inserts the first len characters in s into the string at position index and returns a reference to the string.

### QString & QString::insert ( uint index, QChar c )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Insert c into the string at position index and returns a reference to the string.

If index is beyond the end of the string, the string is extended with spaces (ASCII 32) to length index and c is then appended.

### QString & QString::insert ( uint index, char c )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Insert character c at position index.

### bool QString::isEmpty () const

Returns TRUE if the string is empty, i.e. if length() == 0; otherwise returns FALSE. Null strings are also empty.

            QString a( "" );
            a.isEmpty();        // TRUE
            a.isNull();         // FALSE

            QString b;
            b.isEmpty();        // TRUE
            b.isNull();         // TRUE

See also isNull() and length().

Examples: addressbook/mainwindow.cpp, chart/chartform.cpp, chart/chartform_canvas.cpp, network/networkprotocol/nntp.cpp, qmag/qmag.cpp, and qwerty/qwerty.cpp.

### bool QString::isNull () const

Returns TRUE if the string is null; otherwise returns FALSE. A null string is always empty.

            QString a;          // a.unicode() == 0, a.length() == 0
            a.isNull();         // TRUE, because a.unicode() == 0
            a.isEmpty();        // TRUE

See also isEmpty() and length().

Examples: i18n/main.cpp, network/ftpclient/ftpmainwindow.ui.h, and qdir/qdir.cpp.

### const char * QString::latin1 () const

Returns a Latin-1 representation of the string. The returned value is undefined if the string contains non-Latin-1 characters. If you want to convert strings into formats other than Unicode, see the QTextCodec classes.

This function is mainly useful for boot-strapping legacy code to use Unicode.

The result remains valid so long as one unmodified copy of the source string exists.

See also fromLatin1(), ascii(), utf8(), and local8Bit().

Examples: fileiconview/qfileiconview.cpp and network/networkprotocol/nntp.cpp.

### QString QString::left ( uint len ) const

Returns a substring that contains the len leftmost characters of the string.

The whole string is returned if len exceeds the length of the string.

            QString s = "Pineapple";
            QString t = s.left( 4 );    // t == "Pine"

See also right(), mid(), and isEmpty().

Example: themes/themes.cpp.

### QString QString::leftJustify ( uint width, QChar fill = ' ', bool truncate = FALSE ) const

Returns a string of length width that contains this string padded by the fill character.

If truncate is FALSE and the length of the string is more than width, then the returned string is a copy of the string.

If truncate is TRUE and the length of the string is more than width, then any characters in a copy of the string after length width are removed, and the copy is returned.

            QString s( "apple" );
            QString t = s.leftJustify( 8, '.' );        // t == "apple..."

See also rightJustify().

### uint QString::length () const

Returns the length of the string.

Null strings and empty strings have zero length.

See also isNull() and isEmpty().

Examples: fileiconview/qfileiconview.cpp, network/networkprotocol/nntp.cpp, rot13/rot13.cpp, and themes/themes.cpp.

### QCString QString::local8Bit () const

Returns the string encoded in a locale-specific format. On X11, this is the QTextCodec::codecForLocale(). On Windows, it is a system-defined encoding. On Mac OS X, this always uses UTF-8 as the encoding.

See QTextCodec for more diverse coding/decoding of Unicode strings.

See also fromLocal8Bit(), ascii(), latin1(), and utf8().

### int QString::localeAwareCompare ( const QString & s1, const QString & s2 )`[static]`

Compares s1 with s2 and returns an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero if s1 is less than, equal to, or greater than s2.

The comparison is performed in a locale- and also platform-dependent manner. Use this function to present sorted lists of strings to the user.

See also QString::compare() and QTextCodec::locale().

### int QString::localeAwareCompare ( const QString & s ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Compares this string with s.

### QString QString::lower () const

Returns a lowercase copy of the string.

            QString string( "TROlltECH" );
            str = string.lower();   // str == "trolltech"

See also upper().

Example: scribble/scribble.cpp.

### QString QString::mid ( uint index, uint len = 0xffffffff ) const

Returns a string that contains the len characters of this string, starting at position index.

Returns a null string if the string is empty or index is out of range. Returns the whole string from index if index + len exceeds the length of the string.

            QString s( "Five pineapples" );
            QString t = s.mid( 5, 4 );                  // t == "pine"

See also left() and right().

Examples: network/mail/smtp.cpp, qmag/qmag.cpp, and themes/themes.cpp.

### QString QString::number ( long n, int base = 10 )`[static]`

A convenience function that returns a string equivalent of the number n to base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

            long a = 63;
            QString str = QString::number( a, 16 );             // str == "3f"
            QString str = QString::number( a, 16 ).upper();     // str == "3F"

See also setNum().

Examples: action/application.cpp, application/application.cpp, chart/chartform.cpp, fonts/simple-qfont-demo/viewer.cpp, helpviewer/helpwindow.cpp, mdi/application.cpp, and sql/overview/extract/main.cpp.

### QString QString::number ( ulong n, int base = 10 )`[static]`

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

See also setNum().

### QString QString::number ( int n, int base = 10 )`[static]`

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

See also setNum().

### QString QString::number ( uint n, int base = 10 )`[static]`

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

A convenience factory function that returns a string representation of the number n to the base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

See also setNum().

### QString QString::number ( double n, char f = 'g', int prec = 6 )`[static]`

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Argument n is formatted according to the f format specified, which is `g` by default, and can be any of the following:

Format | Meaning
--- | ---
`e` | format as [-]9.9e[+|-]999
`E` | format as [-]9.9E[+|-]999
`f` | format as [-]9.9
`g` | use `e` or `f` format, whichever is the most concise
`G` | use `E` or `f` format, whichever is the most concise

With 'e', 'E', and 'f', prec is the number of digits after the decimal point. With 'g' and 'G', prec is the maximum number of significant digits (trailing zeroes are omitted).

        double d = 12.34;
        QString ds = QString( "'E' format, precision 3, gives %1" )
                        .arg( d, 0, 'E', 3 );
        // ds == "1.234E+001"

See also setNum().

### QString::operator const char * () const

Returns latin1(). Be sure to see the warnings documented in the latin1() function. Note that for new code which you wish to be strictly Unicode-clean, you can define the macro `QT_NO_ASCII_CAST` when compiling your code to hide this function so that automatic casts are not done. This has the added advantage that you catch the programming error described in operator!().

### QString::operator std::string () const

Returns ascii().

### bool QString::operator! () const

Returns TRUE if this is a null string; otherwise returns FALSE.

            QString name = getName();
            if ( !name )
                name = "Rodney";

Note that if you say

            QString name = getName();
            if ( name )
                doSomethingWith(name);

It will call "operator const char*()", which is inefficent; you may wish to define the macro `QT_NO_ASCII_CAST` when writing code which you wish to remain Unicode-clean.

When you want the above semantics, use:

            QString name = getName();
            if ( !name.isNull() )
                doSomethingWith(name);

See also isEmpty().

### QString & QString::operator+= ( const QString & str )

Appends str to the string and returns a reference to the string.

### QString & QString::operator+= ( const QByteArray & str )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Appends str to the string and returns a reference to the string.

### QString & QString::operator+= ( const char * str )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Appends str to the string and returns a reference to the string.

### QString & QString::operator+= ( const std::string & str )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Appends str to the string and returns a reference to the string.

### QString & QString::operator+= ( QChar c )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Appends c to the string and returns a reference to the string.

### QString & QString::operator+= ( char c )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Appends c to the string and returns a reference to the string.

### QString & QString::operator= ( QChar c )

Sets the string to contain just the single character c.

### QString & QString::operator= ( const QString & s )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Assigns a shallow copy of s to this string and returns a reference to this string. This is very fast because the string isn't actually copied.

### QString & QString::operator= ( const char * str )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Assigns a deep copy of str, interpreted as a classic C string to this string and returns a reference to this string.

If str is 0, then a null string is created.

See also isNull().

### QString & QString::operator= ( const std::string & s )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Makes a deep copy of s and returns a reference to the deep copy.

### QString & QString::operator= ( const QCString & cs )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Assigns a deep copy of cs, interpreted as a classic C string, to this string and returns a reference to this string.

### QString & QString::operator= ( char c )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Sets the string to contain just the single character c.

### QChar QString::operator[] ( int i ) const

Returns the character at index i, or QChar::null if i is beyond the length of the string.

If the QString is not const (i.e., const QString) or const& (i.e., const QString&), then the non-const overload of operator[] will be used instead.

### QCharRef QString::operator[] ( int i )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

The function returns a reference to the character at index i. The resulting reference can then be assigned to, or used immediately, but it will become invalid once further modifications are made to the original string.

If i is beyond the length of the string then the string is expanded with QChar::nulls, so that the QCharRef references a valid (null) character in the string.

The QCharRef internal class can be used much like a constant QChar, but if you assign to it, you change the original string (which will detach itself because of QString's copy-on-write semantics). You will get compilation errors if you try to use the result as anything but a QChar.

### QString & QString::prepend ( const QString & s )

Inserts s at the beginning of the string and returns a reference to the string.

Equivalent to insert(0, s).

            QString string = "42";
            string.prepend( "The answer is " );
            // string == "The answer is 42"

See also insert().

### QString & QString::prepend ( char ch )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Inserts ch at the beginning of the string and returns a reference to the string.

Equivalent to insert(0, ch).

See also insert().

### QString & QString::prepend ( QChar ch )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Inserts ch at the beginning of the string and returns a reference to the string.

Equivalent to insert(0, ch).

See also insert().

### QString & QString::prepend ( const QByteArray & s )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Inserts s at the beginning of the string and returns a reference to the string.

Equivalent to insert(0, s).

See also insert().

### QString & QString::prepend ( const char * s )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Inserts s at the beginning of the string and returns a reference to the string.

Equivalent to insert(0, s).

See also insert().

### QString & QString::prepend ( const std::string & s )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Inserts s at the beginning of the string and returns a reference to the string.

Equivalent to insert(0, s).

See also insert().

### QChar & QString::ref ( uint i )

Returns the QChar at index i by reference, expanding the string with QChar::null if necessary. The resulting reference can be assigned to, or otherwise used immediately, but becomes invalid once furher modifications are made to the string.

            QString string("ABCDEF");
            QChar ch = string.ref( 3 );         // ch == 'D'

See also constref().

### QString & QString::remove ( uint index, uint len )

Removes len characters from the string starting at position index, and returns a reference to the string.

If index is beyond the length of the string, nothing happens. If index is within the string, but index + len is beyond the end of the string, the string is truncated at position index.

            QString string( "Montreal" );
            string.remove( 1, 4 );      // string == "Meal"

See also insert() and replace().

### QString & QString::remove ( QChar c )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Removes every occurrence of the character c in the string. Returns a reference to the string.

This is the same as replace(c, "").

### QString & QString::remove ( char c )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Removes every occurrence of the character c in the string. Returns a reference to the string.

This is the same as replace(c, "").

### QString & QString::remove ( const QString & str )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Removes every occurrence of str in the string. Returns a reference to the string.

This is the same as replace(str, "").

### QString & QString::remove ( const QRegExp & rx )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Removes every occurrence of the regular expression rx in the string. Returns a reference to the string.

This is the same as replace(rx, "").

### QString & QString::remove ( const char * str )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Removes every occurrence of str in the string. Returns a reference to the string.

### QString & QString::replace ( uint index, uint len, const QString & s )

Replaces len characters from the string with s, starting at position index, and returns a reference to the string.

If index is beyond the length of the string, nothing is deleted and s is appended at the end of the string. If index is valid, but index + len is beyond the end of the string, the string is truncated at position index, then s is appended at the end.

            QString string( "Say yes!" );
            string = string.replace( 4, 3, "NO" );
            // string == "Say NO!"

See also insert() and remove().

Examples: listviews/listviews.cpp, network/networkprotocol/nntp.cpp, and qmag/qmag.cpp.

### QString & QString::replace ( uint index, uint len, const QChar * s, uint slen )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Replaces len characters with slen characters of QChar data from s, starting at position index, and returns a reference to the string.

See also insert() and remove().

### QString & QString::replace ( uint index, uint len, QChar c )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

This is the same as replace(index, len, QString(c)).

### QString & QString::replace ( uint index, uint len, char c )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

This is the same as replace(index, len, QChar(c)).

### QString & QString::replace ( QChar c, const QString & after )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Replaces every occurrence of the character c in the string with after. Returns a reference to the string.

Example:

        QString s = "a,b,c";
        s.replace( QChar(','), " or " );
        // s == "a or b or c"

### QString & QString::replace ( char c, const QString & after )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Replaces every occurrence of the character c in the string with after. Returns a reference to the string.

### QString & QString::replace ( const QString & before, const QString & after )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Replaces every occurrence of the string before in the string with the string after. Returns a reference to the string.

Example:

        QString s = "Greek is Greek";
        s.replace( "Greek", "English" );
        // s == "English is English"

### QString & QString::replace ( const QRegExp & rx, const QString & str )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Replaces every occurrence of the regexp rx in the string with str. Returns a reference to the string. For example:

        QString s = "banana";
        s.replace( QRegExp("an"), "" );
        // s == "ba"

For regexps containing capturing parentheses, occurrences of \1, \2, ..., in str are replaced with rx.cap(1), cap(2), ...

        QString t = "A <i>bon mot</i>.";
        t.replace( QRegExp("<i>([^<]*)</i>"), "\\emph{\\1}" );
        // t == "A \\emph{bon mot}."

See also find(), findRev(), and QRegExp::cap().

### QString & QString::replace ( QChar c1, QChar c2 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Replaces every occurrence of c1 with the char c2. Returns a reference to the string.

### QString QString::right ( uint len ) const

Returns a string that contains the len rightmost characters of the string.

If len is greater than the length of the string then the whole string is returned.

            QString string( "Pineapple" );
            QString t = string.right( 5 );   // t == "apple"

See also left(), mid(), and isEmpty().

Example: fileiconview/qfileiconview.cpp.

### QString QString::rightJustify ( uint width, QChar fill = ' ', bool truncate = FALSE ) const

Returns a string of length width that contains the fill character followed by the string.

If truncate is FALSE and the length of the string is more than width, then the returned string is a copy of the string.

If truncate is TRUE and the length of the string is more than width, then the resulting string is truncated at position width.

            QString string( "apple" );
            QString t = string.rightJustify( 8, '.' );  // t == "...apple"

See also leftJustify().

### QString QString::section ( QChar sep, int start, int end = 0xffffffff, int flags = SectionDefault ) const

This function returns a section of the string.

This string is treated as a sequence of fields separated by the character, sep. The returned string consists of the fields from position start to position end inclusive. If end is not specified, all fields from position start to the end of the string are included. Fields are numbered 0, 1, 2, etc., counting from the left, and -1, -2, etc., counting from right to left.

The flags argument can be used to affect some aspects of the function's behaviour, e.g. whether to be case sensitive, whether to skip empty fields and how to deal with leading and trailing separators; see SectionFlags.

        QString csv( "forename,middlename,surname,phone" );
        QString s = csv.section( ',', 2, 2 );   // s == "surname"

        QString path( "/usr/local/bin/myapp" ); // First field is empty
        QString s = path.section( '/', 3, 4 );  // s == "bin/myapp"
        QString s = path.section( '/', 3, 3, SectionSkipEmpty ); // s == "myapp"

If start or end is negative, we count fields from the right of the string, the right-most field being -1, the one from right-most field being -2, and so on.

        QString csv( "forename,middlename,surname,phone" );
        QString s = csv.section( ',', -3, -2 );  // s == "middlename,surname"

        QString path( "/usr/local/bin/myapp" ); // First field is empty
        QString s = path.section( '/', -1 ); // s == "myapp"

See also QStringList::split().

Examples: chart/element.cpp and network/ftpclient/ftpmainwindow.ui.h.

### QString QString::section ( char sep, int start, int end = 0xffffffff, int flags = SectionDefault ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

### QString QString::section ( const char * sep, int start, int end = 0xffffffff, int flags = SectionDefault ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

### QString QString::section ( const QString & sep, int start, int end = 0xffffffff, int flags = SectionDefault ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

This function returns a section of the string.

This string is treated as a sequence of fields separated by the string, sep. The returned string consists of the fields from position start to position end inclusive. If end is not specified, all fields from position start to the end of the string are included. Fields are numbered 0, 1, 2, etc., counting from the left, and -1, -2, etc., counting from right to left.

The flags argument can be used to affect some aspects of the function's behaviour, e.g. whether to be case sensitive, whether to skip empty fields and how to deal with leading and trailing separators; see SectionFlags.

        QString data( "forename**middlename**surname**phone" );
        QString s = data.section( "**", 2, 2 ); // s == "surname"

If start or end is negative, we count fields from the right of the string, the right-most field being -1, the one from right-most field being -2, and so on.

        QString data( "forename**middlename**surname**phone" );
        QString s = data.section( "**", -3, -2 ); // s == "middlename**surname"

See also QStringList::split().

### QString QString::section ( const QRegExp & reg, int start, int end = 0xffffffff, int flags = SectionDefault ) const

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

This function returns a section of the string.

This string is treated as a sequence of fields separated by the regular expression, reg. The returned string consists of the fields from position start to position end inclusive. If end is not specified, all fields from position start to the end of the string are included. Fields are numbered 0, 1, 2, etc., counting from the left, and -1, -2, etc., counting from right to left.

The flags argument can be used to affect some aspects of the function's behaviour, e.g. whether to be case sensitive, whether to skip empty fields and how to deal with leading and trailing separators; see SectionFlags.

        QString line( "forename\tmiddlename  surname \t \t phone" );
        QRegExp sep( "\s+" );
        QString s = line.section( sep, 2, 2 ); // s == "surname"

If start or end is negative, we count fields from the right of the string, the right-most field being -1, the one from right-most field being -2, and so on.

        QString line( "forename\tmiddlename  surname \t \t phone" );
        QRegExp sep( "\\s+" );
        QString s = line.section( sep, -3, -2 ); // s == "middlename  surname"

Warning: Using this QRegExp version is much more expensive than the overloaded string and character versions.

See also QStringList::split() and simplifyWhiteSpace().

### QString & QString::setAscii ( const char * str, int len = -1 )

Sets this string to str, interpreted as a classic 8-bit ASCII C string. If len is -1 (the default), then it is set to strlen(str).

If str is 0 a null string is created. If str is "", an empty string is created.

See also isNull() and isEmpty().

### void QString::setExpand ( uint index, QChar c )

This function is obsolete. It is provided to keep old source working. We strongly advise against using it in new code.

Sets the character at position index to c and expands the string if necessary, filling with spaces.

This method is redundant in Qt 3.x, because operator[] will expand the string as necessary.

### QString & QString::setLatin1 ( const char * str, int len = -1 )

Sets this string to str, interpreted as a classic Latin1 C string. If len is -1 (the default), then it is set to strlen(str).

If str is 0 a null string is created. If str is "", an empty string is created.

See also isNull() and isEmpty().

### void QString::setLength ( uint newLen )

Ensures that at least newLen characters are allocated to the string, and sets the length of the string to newLen. Any new space allocated contains arbitrary data.

If newLen is 0, then the string becomes empty (non-null).

If it is not possible to allocate enough memory, the string remains unchanged.

This function always detaches the string from other references to the same data.

This function is useful for code that needs to build up a long string and wants to avoid repeated reallocation. In this example, we want to add to the string until some condition is true, and we're fairly sure that size is big enough:

            QString result;
            int len = 0;
            result.setLength( maxLen );     // allocate some space
            while ( ... ) {
                result[len++] = ...         // fill part of the space
            }
            result.truncate( len );         // and get rid of the rest

If newLen is an underestimate, the worst that will happen is that the loop will slow down.

See also truncate(), isNull(), isEmpty(), and length().

### QString & QString::setNum ( long n, int base = 10 )

Sets the string to the printed value of n in base base and returns a reference to the string.

The base is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

            QString string;
            string = string.setNum( 1234 );     // string == "1234"

### QString & QString::setNum ( short n, int base = 10 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Sets the string to the printed value of n in base base and returns a reference to the string.

The base is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

### QString & QString::setNum ( ushort n, int base = 10 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Sets the string to the printed value of n in base base and returns a reference to the string.

The base is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

### QString & QString::setNum ( int n, int base = 10 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Sets the string to the printed value of n in base base and returns a reference to the string.

The base is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

### QString & QString::setNum ( uint n, int base = 10 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Sets the string to the printed value of n in base base and returns a reference to the string.

The base is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

### QString & QString::setNum ( ulong n, int base = 10 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Sets the string to the printed value of n in base base and returns a reference to the string.

The base is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

### QString & QString::setNum ( float n, char f = 'g', int prec = 6 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Sets the string to the printed value of n, formatted in format f with precision prec, and returns a reference to the string.

The format f can be 'f', 'F', 'e', 'E', 'g' or 'G'. See arg() for an explanation of the formats.

### QString & QString::setNum ( double n, char f = 'g', int prec = 6 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Sets the string to the printed value of n, formatted in format f with precision prec, and returns a reference to the string.

The format f can be 'f', 'F', 'e', 'E', 'g' or 'G'. See arg() for an explanation of the formats.

### QString & QString::setUnicode ( const QChar * unicode, uint len )

Resizes the string to len characters and copies unicode into the string. If unicode is 0, nothing is copied, but the string is still resized to len. If len is zero, then the string becomes a null string.

See also setLatin1() and isNull().

### QString & QString::setUnicodeCodes ( const ushort * unicode_as_ushorts, uint len )

Resizes the string to len characters and copies unicode_as_ushorts into the string (on some X11 client platforms this will involve a byte-swapping pass).

If unicode_as_ushorts is 0, nothing is copied, but the string is still resized to len. If len is zero, the string becomes a null string.

See also setLatin1() and isNull().

### QString QString::simplifyWhiteSpace () const

Returns a string that has whitespace removed from the start and the end, and which has each sequence of internal whitespace replaced with a single space.

Whitespace means any character for which QChar::isSpace() returns TRUE. This includes Unicode characters with decimal values 9 (TAB), 10 (LF), 11 (VT), 12 (FF), 13 (CR), and 32 (Space).

            QString string = "  lots\t of\nwhite    space ";
            QString t = string.simplifyWhiteSpace();
            // t == "lots of white space"

See also stripWhiteSpace().

### QString & QString::sprintf ( const char * cformat, ... )

Safely builds a formatted string from the format string cformat and an arbitrary list of arguments. The format string supports all the escape sequences of printf() in the standard C library.

The %s escape sequence expects a utf8() encoded string. The format string cformat is expected to be in latin1. If you need a Unicode format string, use arg() instead. For typesafe string building, with full Unicode support, you can use QTextOStream like this:

            QString str;
            QString s = ...;
            int x = ...;
            QTextOStream( &str ) << s << " : " << x;

For translations, especially if the strings contains more than one escape sequence, you should consider using the arg() function instead. This allows the order of the replacements to be controlled by the translator, and has Unicode support.

See also arg().

Examples: dclock/dclock.cpp, forever/forever.cpp, layout/layout.cpp, qmag/qmag.cpp, scrollview/scrollview.cpp, tooltip/tooltip.cpp, and xform/xform.cpp.

### bool QString::startsWith ( const QString & s ) const

Returns TRUE if the string starts with s; otherwise returns FALSE.

            QString string("Bananas");
            bool a = string.startsWith("Ban");      //  a == TRUE

See also endsWith().

### QString QString::stripWhiteSpace () const

Returns a string that has whitespace removed from the start and the end.

Whitespace means any character for which QChar::isSpace() returns TRUE. This includes Unicode characters with decimal values 9 (TAB), 10 (LF), 11 (VT), 12 (FF), 13 (CR) and 32 (Space), and may also include other Unicode characters.

            QString string = "   white space   ";
            QString s = string.stripWhiteSpace();       // s == "white space"

See also simplifyWhiteSpace().

### double QString::toDouble ( bool * ok = 0 ) const

Returns the string converted to a `double` value.

If ok is not 0: if a conversion error occurs, *ok is set to FALSE; otherwise *ok is set to TRUE.

            QString string( "1234.56" );
            double a = string.toDouble();   // a == 1234.56

See also number().

### float QString::toFloat ( bool * ok = 0 ) const

Returns the string converted to a `float` value.

If ok is not 0: if a conversion error occurs, *ok is set to FALSE; otherwise *ok is set to TRUE.

See also number().

### int QString::toInt ( bool * ok = 0, int base = 10 ) const

Returns the string converted to an `int` value to the base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

If ok is not 0: if a conversion error occurs, *ok is set to FALSE; otherwise *ok is set to TRUE.

            QString str( "FF" );
            bool ok;
            int hex = str.toInt( &ok, 16 );     // hex == 255, ok == TRUE
            int dec = str.toInt( &ok, 10 );     // dec == 0, ok == FALSE

See also number().

### long QString::toLong ( bool * ok = 0, int base = 10 ) const

Returns the string converted to a `long` value to the base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

If ok is not 0: if a conversion error occurs, *ok is set to FALSE; otherwise *ok is set to TRUE.

See also number().

### short QString::toShort ( bool * ok = 0, int base = 10 ) const

Returns the string converted to a `short` value to the base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

If ok is not 0: if a conversion error occurs, *ok is set to FALSE; otherwise *ok is set to TRUE.

### uint QString::toUInt ( bool * ok = 0, int base = 10 ) const

Returns the string converted to an `unsigned int` value to the base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

If ok is not 0: if a conversion error occurs, *ok is set to FALSE; otherwise *ok is set to TRUE.

See also number().

### ulong QString::toULong ( bool * ok = 0, int base = 10 ) const

Returns the string converted to an `unsigned long` value to the base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

If ok is not 0: if a conversion error occurs, *ok is set to FALSE; otherwise *ok is set to TRUE.

See also number().

### ushort QString::toUShort ( bool * ok = 0, int base = 10 ) const

Returns the string converted to an `unsigned short` value to the base base, which is 10 by default and must be between 2 and 36.

If ok is not 0: if a conversion error occurs, *ok is set to FALSE; otherwise *ok is set to TRUE.

### void QString::truncate ( uint newLen )

If newLen is less than the length of the string, then the string is truncated at position newLen. Otherwise nothing happens.

            QString s = "truncate me";
            s.truncate( 5 );            // s == "trunc"

See also setLength().

Example: network/mail/smtp.cpp.

### const unsigned short * QString::ucs2 () const

Returns the QString as a zero terminated array of unsigned shorts if the string is not null; otherwise returns zero.

The result remains valid so long as one unmodified copy of the source string exists.

### const QChar * QString::unicode () const

Returns the Unicode representation of the string. The result remains valid until the string is modified.

### QString QString::upper () const

Returns an uppercase copy of the string.

            QString string( "TeXt" );
            str = string.upper();     // t == "TEXT"

See also lower().

Examples: scribble/scribble.cpp and sql/overview/custom1/main.cpp.

### QCString QString::utf8 () const

Returns the string encoded in UTF-8 format.

See QTextCodec for more diverse coding/decoding of Unicode strings.

See also fromUtf8(), ascii(), latin1(), and local8Bit().

## Related Functions

### bool operator!= ( const QString & s1, const QString & s2 )

Returns TRUE if s1 is not equal to s2; otherwise returns FALSE. Note that a null string is not equal to a not-null empty string.

Equivalent to compare(s1, s2) != 0.

See also isNull() and isEmpty().

### bool operator!= ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns TRUE if s1 is not equal to s2; otherwise returns FALSE. Note that a null string is not equal to a not-null empty string.

Equivalent to compare(s1, s2) != 0.

See also isNull() and isEmpty().

### bool operator!= ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns TRUE if s1 is not equal to s2; otherwise returns FALSE. Note that a null string is not equal to a not-null empty string.

Equivalent to compare(s1, s2) != 0.

See also isNull() and isEmpty().

### const QString operator+ ( const QString & s1, const QString & s2 )

Returns a string which is the result of concatenating the string s1 and the string s2.

Equivalent to s1.append(s2).

### const QString operator+ ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns a string which is the result of concatenating the string s1 and character s2.

Equivalent to s1.append(s2).

### const QString operator+ ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns a string which is the result of concatenating the character s1 and string s2.

### const QString operator+ ( const QString & s, char c )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns a string which is the result of concatenating the string s and character c.

Equivalent to s.append(c).

### const QString operator+ ( char c, const QString & s )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns a string which is the result of concatenating the character c and string s.

Equivalent to s.prepend(c).

### bool operator< ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )

Returns TRUE if s1 is lexically less than s2; otherwise returns FALSE. The comparison is case sensitive.

Equivalent to compare(s1, s2) < 0.

### bool operator< ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns TRUE if s1 is lexically less than s2; otherwise returns FALSE. The comparison is case sensitive.

Equivalent to compare(s1, s2) < 0.

### QDataStream & operator<< ( QDataStream & s, const QString & str )

Writes the string str to the stream s.

See also Format of the QDataStream operators

### bool operator<= ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )

Returns TRUE if s1 is lexically less than or equal to s2; otherwise returns FALSE. The comparison is case sensitive. Note that a null string is not equal to a not-null empty string.

Equivalent to compare(s1,s2) <= 0.

See also isNull() and isEmpty().

### bool operator<= ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns TRUE if s1 is lexically less than or equal to s2; otherwise returns FALSE. The comparison is case sensitive. Note that a null string is not equal to a not-null empty string.

Equivalent to compare(s1, s2) <= 0.

See also isNull() and isEmpty().

### bool operator== ( const QString & s1, const QString & s2 )

Returns TRUE if s1 is equal to s2; otherwise returns FALSE. Note that a null string is not equal to a not-null empty string.

Equivalent to compare(s1, s2) != 0.

See also isNull() and isEmpty().

### bool operator== ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns TRUE if s1 is equal to s2; otherwise returns FALSE. Note that a null string is not equal to a not-null empty string.

Equivalent to compare(s1, s2) == 0.

See also isNull() and isEmpty().

### bool operator== ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns TRUE if s1 is equal to s2; otherwise returns FALSE. Note that a null string is not equal to a not-null empty string.

Equivalent to compare(s1, s2) == 0.

See also isNull() and isEmpty().

### bool operator> ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )

Returns TRUE if s1 is lexically greater than s2; otherwise returns FALSE. The comparison is case sensitive.

Equivalent to compare(s1, s2) > 0.

### bool operator> ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns TRUE if s1 is lexically greater than s2; otherwise returns FALSE. The comparison is case sensitive.

Equivalent to compare(s1, s2) > 0.

### bool operator>= ( const QString & s1, const char * s2 )

Returns TRUE if s1 is lexically greater than or equal to s2; otherwise returns FALSE. The comparison is case sensitive. Note that a null string is not equal to a not-null empty string.

Equivalent to compare(s1, s2) >= 0.

See also isNull() and isEmpty().

### bool operator>= ( const char * s1, const QString & s2 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Returns TRUE if s1 is lexically greater than or equal to s2; otherwise returns FALSE. The comparison is case sensitive. Note that a null string is not equal to a not-null empty string.

Equivalent to compare(s1, s2) >= 0.

See also isNull() and isEmpty().

### QDataStream & operator>> ( QDataStream & s, QString & str )

Reads a string from the stream s into string str.

See also Format of the QDataStream operators

This file is part of the Qt toolkit. Copyright © 1995-2003 Trolltech. All Rights Reserved.