Index() searches a string to find the starting position of the nth occurrence of a provided substring. An optional third argument provides the value of n, which is 1 if omitted. A negative value searches from the end of the string. The positions in the string are numbered from 1 and up.
Syntax:
Index(text, substring[, count])
Return data type: integer
Arguments:
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
| text | The original string. |
| substring |
A string of characters to search for in text. Information noteIf the substring does not exist in the text, Index returns 0.
|
| count | Defines which occurrence of substring to search for. For example, a value of 2 searches for the second occurrence. |
Examples and results:
| Example | Result |
|---|---|
| Index( 'abcdefg', 'cd' ) | Returns 3 |
| Index( 'abcdabcd', 'b', 2) | Returns 6 (the second occurrence of 'b') |
| Index( 'abcdabcd', 'b',-2) | Returns 2 (the second occurrence of 'b' starting from the end) |
| Left( Date, Index( Date,'-') -1 ) where Date = 1997-07-14 | Returns 1997 |
| Mid( Date, Index( Date, '-', 2 ) -2, 2 ) where Date = 1997-07-14 | Returns 07 |
| Returns 0 ('x' does not exist in the string 'abc') | |
| Returns 0 (there is no 2nd occurrence of 'a') |
