The result is a Number, which gives the byte index in {haystack} of the first occurrence of the String {needle}. If {start} is specified, the search starts at index {start}. This can be used to find a second match: :let colon1 = stridx(line, ":") :let colon2 = stridx(line, ":", colon1 + 1) The search is done case-sensitive. For pattern searches use |match()|. -1 is returned if the {needle} does not occur in {haystack}. See also |strridx()|. Examples: :echo stridx("An Example", "Example") 3 :echo stridx("Starting point", "Start") 0 :echo stridx("Starting point", "start") -1 stridx() works similar to the C function strstr(). When used with a single character it works similar to strchr(). Can also be used as a |method|: GetHaystack()->stridx(needle)