substr()

Syntax

substr(string,position[, length])

Usage

substr returns the characters in string, starting at position position. If you specify length, this function returns length number of characters. If any of the parameters are null, then the function returns null. length is optional.

The first character in string is at position 1. If position is negative then the position is relative to the end of the string. So a position of -1 denotes the last character.

If length is negative, then the function returns null. If position > len (string) or position < -len(string) or position = 0, then the empty string is returned.

Example

-- we want a substring that is one character long, starting at position 1. 
-- The character "C" is returned.
substr("CRM", 1, 1)

-- we want a substring that is 2 characters long, starting at position 1
-- The string "CR" is returned
substr("CRM", 1, 2) == "CR"

-- we want a substring that is two characters long, starting from the *end* of the string
-- The string "RM" is returned
substr("CRM", -2, 2) == "RM"

-- we want to get the first 10 characters from this string
-- the string "2018-03-16" is returned
substr("2018-03-16T00:00:03.000Z",10)

Example

q = foreach q generate substr(date_to_string(now(), "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"), -11) as 'Time Now';