How to get the last character of a string in JavaScript

There are multiple ways to get the last character of a string in JavaScript. You can use the charAt(), slice(), substring(), at(), or bracket notation property access to get the last character in a string.

Get the last character of a string using charAt() method

To get the last character of a string, you can call the charAt() method on the string, passing it the last character index as a parameter.

This method returns a new string containing the character at the given index.

const str = 'JavaScript'

const lastChar = str.charAt(str.length - 1)
console.log(lastChar) // t

The charAt() method returns the character of a string at the specified index. An empty string is returned if the given index does not exist:

const str = 'JavaScript'

const lastChar = str.charAt(20)
console.log(lastChar) // ""

Indexes are zero-based in JavaScript. The first character of a string has an index of 0, and the last has an index of str.length - 1.

Get the last character of a string using bracket notation

You can also use the bracket notation ([]) to get the last character of a string:

const str = 'JavaScript'

const lastChar = str[str.length - 1]
console.log(lastChar) // t

Unlike the charAt() method, the bracket notation returns undefined if the given index does not exist:

const str = 'JavaScript'

const lastChar = str[20]
console.log(lastChar) // undefined

Get the last character of a string using substring() method

To get the last character of the string, call the substring() on the string, and the last character index as a start index:

const str = 'JavaScript'

const lastChar = str.substring(str.length - 1)
console.log(lastChar) // t

The substring() method extracts characters between the start and end indexes from a string and returns the substring.

Get the last character of a string using slice() method

To get the last character of the string, call the slice() method on the string, passing -1 as a negative start index:

const str = 'JavaScript'

const lastChar = str.slice(-1)
console.log(lastChar) // t

The slice() method extracts a part of a string between the start and end indexes, specified as first and second parameters. It returns the extracted part as a new string and does not change the original string.

The slice() method also accepts a negative start index to slice the string from the end. You can even use this approach to get the last N characters of a string:

const str = 'JavaScript'

const last2 = str.slice(-2)
console.log(last2) // pt

const last4 = str.slice(-4)
console.log(last4) // ript

const last6 = str.slice(-6)
console.log(last6) // Script

Get the last character of a string using at() method

The at() method takes an integer as input and returns the character of a string at the specified index. To get the last character of the string, call the at() method on the string with a -1 index:

const str = 'JavaScript'

const lastChar = str.at(-1)
console.log(lastChar) // t

When negative integers are passed to at(), it counts back from the last string character.

The at() method returns undefined if the index does not exist:

console.log(str.at(20))  // undefined

The at() method is a new addition to JavaScript and only works in modern browsers.

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