How to check if a string "StartsWith" another string?

Question

How would I write the equivalent of C#'s String.StartsWith in JavaScript?

var haystack = 'hello world';
var needle = 'he';

haystack.startsWith(needle) == true

Note: This is an old question, and as pointed out in the comments ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) introduced the .startsWith method. However, at the time of writing this update (2015) browser support is far from complete.

Answer 1

You can use ECMAScript 6's String.prototype.startsWith() method. It's supported in all major browsers. However, if you want to use it in a browser that is unsupported you'll want to use a shim/polyfill to add it on those browsers. Creating an implementation that complies with all the details laid out in the spec is a little complicated. If you want a faithful shim, use either:

• Matthias Bynens's String.prototype.startsWith shim, or
• The es6-shim, which shims as much of the ES6 spec as possible, including String.prototype.startsWith.

Once you've shimmed the method (or if you're only supporting browsers and JavaScript engines that already have it), you can use it like this:

console.log("Hello World!".startsWith("He")); // true

var haystack = "Hello world";
var prefix = 'orl';
console.log(haystack.startsWith(prefix)); // false