WOLFRAM

Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center

StringTakeDrop["string",n]

gives a pair of strings containing the first n characters in "string" and the remaining characters.

StringTakeDrop["string",seq]

gives the pair {StringTake["string",seq],StringDrop["string",seq]}.

Details
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Applications  
Properties & Relations  
See Also
Tech Notes
Related Guides
Related Links
History
Cite this Page

StringTakeDrop

StringTakeDrop["string",n]

gives a pair of strings containing the first n characters in "string" and the remaining characters.

StringTakeDrop["string",seq]

gives the pair {StringTake["string",seq],StringDrop["string",seq]}.

Details

  • StringTakeDrop uses the standard sequence specification:
  • Allall characters
    Noneno characters
    ncharacters 1 through n
    UpTo[n]characters 1 up to at most n, as available
    -nlast n characters
    {n}character n only
    {m,n}characters m through n inclusive
    {m,n,s}characters m through n in steps of s
  • StringTakeDrop[{string1,string2,…},seq] returns {StringTakeDrop[string1,seq],StringTakeDrop[string2,seq],…}.
  • StringTakeDrop[BioSequence["type","seq"],spec] will apply the operation to the string "seq", yielding a BioSequence result.
  • Given a circular BioSequence and a starting position greater than the ending position, i.e. m>n, then StringTakeDrop[bioseq,{m,n}] takes the wrapped-around sequence starting at m and ending at n.

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (3)

Separate the first 6 characters in a string from the rest:

Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop["abcdefghijklmn", 6]

Take some characters from the middle of a string and catenate the rest:

Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop["abcdefghijklmn", {5, 8}]

Separate a string into substrings of given lengths:

Wolfram Language code: FoldPairList[StringTakeDrop, "abcdefghijklmn", {2, 3, 4, 5}]

Scope  (5)

StringTakeDrop uses the standard sequence specification:

Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop["abcdefg", 3]
Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop["abcdefg", -3]
Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop["abcdefg", {3}]
Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop["abcdefg", {2, 4}]
Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop["abcdefg", {2, 6, 2}]
Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop["abcdefg", All]
Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop["abcdefg", None]

Take up to 8 characters in the first string, or as many as are available:

Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop["abcdefg", UpTo[8]]

StringTakeDrop is listable in its first argument:

Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop[{"first", "second", "third"}, 2]

Take and drop a codon from a biomolecular sequence:

Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop[BioSequence["DNA", "GTCTCGCGTAGC"], {4, 6}]

Undertake a wraparound take and drop on a circular sequence:

Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop[BioSequence["CircularDNA", "CGGTTA"], {5, 2}]

Applications  (1)

Break a list of structured strings by given lengths:

Wolfram Language code: data = {"2020-11-20HI1.231", "2020-11-21ME0.765", "2020-11-22LO0.005"};
Wolfram Language code: FoldPairList[StringTakeDrop, #, {10, 2, 5}]& /@ data

This can also be achieved with StringTake using a list of sequence specs:

Wolfram Language code: StringTake[data, {1 ;; 10, 11 ;; 12, 13 ;; 17}]

Properties & Relations  (2)

StringTakeDrop is equivalent to a combination of StringTake and StringDrop:

Wolfram Language code: string = StringJoin[Alphabet[]]
Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop[string, 8]
Wolfram Language code: {StringTake[string, 8], StringDrop[string, 8]}

StringTakeDrop does for strings what TakeDrop does for lists:

Wolfram Language code: string = "WolframLanguage";
Wolfram Language code: StringTakeDrop[string, 7]
Wolfram Language code: characters = Characters[string]
Wolfram Language code: TakeDrop[characters, 7]
Wolfram Research (2021), StringTakeDrop, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StringTakeDrop.html (updated 2022).

Text

Wolfram Research (2021), StringTakeDrop, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StringTakeDrop.html (updated 2022).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2021. "StringTakeDrop." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2022. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StringTakeDrop.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2021). StringTakeDrop. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StringTakeDrop.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2026_stringtakedrop, author="Wolfram Research", title="{StringTakeDrop}", year="2022", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StringTakeDrop.html}", note=[Accessed: 13-June-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2026_stringtakedrop, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={StringTakeDrop}, year={2022}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StringTakeDrop.html}, note=[Accessed: 13-June-2026]}