DataScript: string.sub

DataScript

Function string.sub(source, begin, [end])
Description Extracts part of a string from a source string. Characters are count starting with a 1 for the first character, 2 for the second, etc. Characters may also be negative. So -1 is the last character of the source string, -2 is the second to last, etc.
Events All
Parameter source is the string to be inspected

begin is the first character for the desired result

end is the final character for the desired result. If no end it specified, the new string will be from the begin till the last character.
Returns A portion of the original string. May return the entire original string, or nil if no match
Example 1 Extract the 2nd through the 4th characters.
var = "abcdef"
avi.vs.log(string.sub(var, 2, 4))
DataScript Log: [string "Test-Rule"]:2: bcd
Example 2 Extract characters from the string, starting from the 99th to last till the 2nd to last.
var = "abcdef"
avi.vs.log(string.sub(var, -99, 2))
DataScript Log: [string "Test-Rule"]:2: abcde
Example 3 Update a variable with the altered string. A path always starts with a '/', which is removed prior to rule evaluation.
path = avi.http.get_path()
path = string.sub(path, 2)
if path == "index.html" ...
Example 4 The following example can be used to prevent a Shell Shock attack. This attack embeds a client header which starts with () characters.
headers = avi.http.get_header()                -- get all the HTTP headers
for key,val in pairs(headers) do               -- iterate through all headers
   if #val > 2 and string.sub(val, 1, 2) == "()" then
      avi.http.close_conn()                    -- close the TCP connection
   end
end