| ActiveTcl User Guide |

# String Subcommands - length index range

Tcl commands often have "subcommands". The `string` command is an example of one of these. The `string` command treats its first argument as a subcommand. Utilizing subcommands is a good way to make one command do multiple things without using cryptic names. For instance, Tcl has `string length` instead of, say, `slength`.

This lesson covers these string subcommands:

`string length` `string`
  Returns the length of `string`.
`string index` `string` `index`
  Returns the `index`th character from `string`.
`string range` `string` `first` `last`
  Returns a string composed of the characters from `first` to `last`.

## Example

    set string "this is my test string"

    puts "There are [string length $string] characters in \"$string\""

    puts "[string index $string 1] is the second character in \"$string\""

    puts "\"[string range $string 5 10]\" are characters between the 5'th and 10'th"