INSTR

Returns, as an integer, the position of the first character of a string within another

Implemented by: decbasic, cbmv7, cbmv3.5, msatari, trsdisk, level3, colorext, GWBASIC, MSX, bwbasic, bw32, ABasiC, QBasic, VBDOS, FreeBASIC, Gambas, ugBASIC, minibasicmm, minibasicjs

With variations: BBC (parameters order)

Also written as:

INSTR returns the position of the first character of a given string within another given string.

In some Microsoft BASICs at least, such as MSX, 0 would be returned if the substring could not be found, meaning that the character count of the searched string started at 1. Syntax is:

X = INSTR(?startpos?, haystr, needlestr)

where:

• ?startpos? is an optional start position from where the search would be performed
• haystr is the string to be scanned for the occurence of the substring
• needlestr is the substring we are trying to find in haystr

In BBC BASIC, the optional start position for the search was the last parameter, after the "hay" and the "needle" arguments.