This article will show you how to remove the first and last characters from a given string in JavaScript. There are two methods to remove the first and last characters in a string.

1. Using String slice() Method

The string.slice() method returns a part or slice of the given input string.

Syntax:

string.slice(startingIndex, endingIndex)

Example: In this example, we will remove the first and the last character of the string using the slice method in JavaScript.

// JavaScript Program to remoove first 
// and last character of a string
function removeFirstLast(str) {
    return str.slice(1, -1);
}

// Driver code
const str = 'GeeksforGeeks';

console.log(removeFirstLast(str));

eeksforGeek

2. Using String substring() Method

The string.substring() method returns the part of a given string from the start index to the end index. Indexing always start from zero (0).

Syntax:

string.substring(Startindex, Endindex)

Example: In this example, we will remove the first and the last character of the string using the substring() method in JavaScript.

// JavaScript Program to remoove first 
// and last character of a string
function removeFirstLast(str) {
    return str.substring(1, str.length - 1);
}

// Driver code
const str = 'GeeksforGeeks';

console.log(removeFirstLast(str));

eeksforGeek

3. Using Array Methods

To remove the first and last characters from a string using array methods, you can convert the string to an array, remove the first and last elements with shift() and pop(), then join the array back into a string.

Example:

function removeFirstAndLast(str) {
  const arr = str.split('');
  arr.shift();
  arr.pop();
  return arr.join('');
}

const result = removeFirstAndLast("Hello");
console.log(result); // "ell"

ell

4. Using String substr() Method:

The substr() method returns the characters in a string beginning at the specified location through the specified number of characters.

Example: In this example, we will remove the first and last characters of the string using the substr() method in JavaScript.

// JavaScript Program to remove first 
// and last character of a string
function removeFirstLast(str) {
    return str.substr(1, str.length - 2);
}

// Driver code
const str = 'GeeksforGeeks';

console.log(removeFirstLast(str));

5. Using Regular Expression and String Replace Method:

In this method, we can utilize a regular expression along with the string replace() method to remove the first and last characters from a string.

Example: In this example, we will remove the first and last characters of the string using a regular expression with the replace() method in JavaScript.

// Function to remove the first and last characters using regular expression and replace() method
function removeFirstAndLastWithRegex(str) {
    return str.replace(/^.(.*).$/, '$1');
}

// Example usage
const originalStr = "example";
const modifiedStr = removeFirstAndLastWithRegex(originalStr);
console.log(modifiedStr); // Output: xampl

xampl

6. Using shift and pop method:

In this approach we first splits the string into an array of characters and then we use shift() method to remove first element and pop() method to remove to remove last element, and then we joins the remaining elements back into a string.

Example: In this example, we will remove the first and last characters of the string using a shift and pop methods.

function removeFirstAndLastChars(str) {
    if (str.length <= 2) {
        return ''; 
        }
    let arr = str.split('');
    arr.pop(); // Remove the last character
    arr.shift(); // Remove the first character
    return arr.join('');
}

const input = "horje";
const result = removeFirstAndLastChars(input);
console.log(result);

eeksforgeek

7.Using String Destructuring and Slice

In this approach, we use JavaScript’s destructuring assignment to split the string into an array of characters. Then, we use the slice method to remove the first and last characters from the array. Finally, we join the remaining characters back into a string.

Example: This example demonstrates how to remove the first and last characters using string destructuring and slice.

function removeFirstAndLastChar(str) {
    // Convert string to array and remove first and last characters
    let charArray = [...str];
    let newArray = charArray.slice(1, -1);

    // Convert array back to string
    return newArray.join('');
}

// Example usage:
let inputString = "HelloWorld";
console.log(removeFirstAndLastChar(inputString)); // Output: "elloWorl"

elloWorl

8. Using String replace Method without Regular Expressions

In this approach, we can use the replace method to remove the first and last characters by specifying the characters to be replaced as an empty string.

Example: This example demonstrates how to remove the first and last characters using the replace method.

function removeFirstLast(str) {
    if (str.length <= 2) {
        return '';
    }
    return str.replace(str[0], '').replace(str[str.length - 1], '');
}
const str = 'GeeksforGeeks';
console.log(removeFirstLast(str));

eekforGeeks