I am using C# 11.0, and saw some weird behavior, that I had never seen before. But I am sure the behavior is not because of the C# version that I am using. Following is the explanation of the behavior I am seeing (the code):
char a1='a';
string s1=char.ToString(a1);
string s2 = s1.Substring(1);
After the code executes, s2
is giving me the value of string.Empty
(that is ""
). This is weird because, s1
has only 1 character and, s1.Substring(1)
should give IndexOutOfRangeException
. This is because, the definition of Substring is Substring(int startIndex)
. And s1.Substring(1)
lies outside the bounds of s1
(like most languages, a string
starts from the 0th index in C#).
I also tried it in the immediate window, and following is the result that I got:
s1
"a"
s1[0]
97 'a'
s1[1]
's1[1]' threw an exception of type 'System.IndexOutOfRangeException'
Data: {System.Collections.ListDictionaryInternal}
HResult: -2146233080
HelpLink: null
InnerException: null
Message: "Index was outside the bounds of the array."
Source: "System.Private.CoreLib"
StackTrace: " at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowIndexOutOfRangeException()\r\n at System.String.get_Chars(Int32 index)"
TargetSite: {Void ThrowIndexOutOfRangeException()}
s1.Substring(0)
"a"
s1.Substring(1)
""
Though s1.Substring(2)
correctly gives ArgumentOutOfRangeException
. But, I am perplexed to see why s1.Substring(1)
returns an Empty
string (that is ""
).
Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks!
FYI - the answer I upvoted is explicit and makes more sense to the question I asked. Namely: [[Returns] A string that is equivalent to the substring that begins at startIndex in this instance, or Empty if startIndex is equal to the length of this instance.]
This behavior is actually explicitly documented in SubString
's documentation (added my won bolding for emphasis):
[Returns] A string that is equivalent to the substring that begins at
startIndex
in this instance, or Empty ifstartIndex
is equal to the length of this instance.