Test if string begins with a string?

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In VBA, what's the most straight forward way to test if a string begins with a substring? Java has startsWith. Is there a VBA equivalent?

3 Answers

The best methods are already given but why not look at a couple of other methods for fun? Warning: these are more expensive methods but do serve in other circumstances.

The expensive regex method and the css attribute selector with starts with ^ operator

Option Explicit

Public Sub test()

    Debug.Print StartWithSubString("ab", "abc,d")

End Sub

Regex:

Public Function StartWithSubString(ByVal substring As String, ByVal testString As String) As Boolean
    'required reference Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions
    Dim re As VBScript_RegExp_55.RegExp
    Set re = New VBScript_RegExp_55.RegExp

    re.Pattern = "^" & substring

    StartWithSubString = re.test(testString)

End Function

Css attribute selector with starts with operator

Public Function StartWithSubString(ByVal substring As String, ByVal testString As String) As Boolean
    'required reference Microsoft HTML Object Library
    Dim html As MSHTML.HTMLDocument
    Set html = New MSHTML.HTMLDocument

    html.body.innerHTML = "<div test=""" & testString & """></div>"

    StartWithSubString = html.querySelectorAll("[test^=" & substring & "]").Length > 0

End Function
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