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

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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_SENSITIVE when blank.

Return type

Boolean

Examples

Default case sensitive example

The following case sensitive example evaluates if state_nm startsWith New.

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startsWith(state_nm, "New")

The following are the given field values.

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New York
new york

For these field values, the following values are returned.

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true
false

Case insensitive example

The following case insensitive example evaluates if state_nm startsWith new.

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startsWith(state_nm, "new", CASE_INSENSITIVE)

The following are the given field values.

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New York
new york

For these field values, the following values are returned.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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startsWith(state_nm, toString(5) )