String .charAt() / at()

Returns the character at the specified position in a string. To get the character code instead, use string.charCodeAt().

Syntax

// Returns the character at the specified position.
string.charAt(position)

// Returns the character at the specified position. A negative value counts from the end.
string.at(position)

// Returns the UTF-16 code of the character at the specified position.
string.charCodeAt(position)

Method List

Method	Description
charAt(position)	Returns the character at the specified position. Returns an empty string `""` if the position is out of range.
at(position)	Returns the character at the specified position. A negative value counts from the end of the string. Returns `undefined` if out of range.
charCodeAt(position)	Returns the UTF-16 code (a number) of the character at the specified position. Returns `NaN` if out of range.

Sample Code

var str = "Hello";

// Get a character using charAt.
console.log(str.charAt(0));  // Outputs "H".
console.log(str.charAt(4));  // Outputs "o".
console.log(str.charAt(10)); // Out of range, so outputs an empty string "".

// Get a character using at. A negative value counts from the end.
console.log(str.at(0));  // Outputs "H".
console.log(str.at(-1)); // Outputs "o" (last character).
console.log(str.at(-2)); // Outputs "l" (second from the end).

// Get the character code using charCodeAt.
console.log(str.charCodeAt(0)); // Outputs the UTF-16 code of "H", which is 72.
console.log(str.charCodeAt(1)); // Outputs the UTF-16 code of "e", which is 101.

// You can also access characters using bracket notation.
console.log(str[0]);  // Outputs "H".
console.log(str[-1]); // Bracket notation does not support negative values, so outputs "undefined".

Overview

string.charAt() is a basic method that returns a single character at the specified position. The similar method string.at() also accepts negative values, making it convenient when you need to access characters from the end of a string.

You can also access characters using bracket notation (str[0]), but it does not support negative values. To get the last character, you would need to write str[str.length - 1], whereas string.at(-1) lets you do the same thing more concisely.

string.charCodeAt() returns the UTF-16 code of a character as a number. It is useful when comparing or converting characters, but for simply retrieving a character, string.charAt() or string.at() is the more common choice.