Many languages have powerful and useful (binary safe) string manipulation functions, while others don't, making it harder for these languages to accomplish some tasks.

This task is about creating functions to handle binary strings (strings made of arbitrary bytes, i.e. byte strings according to Wikipedia) for those languages that don't have built-in support for them.

If your language of choice does have this built-in support, show a possible alternative implementation for the functions or abilities already provided by the language.

In particular the functions you need to create are:

 String creation and destruction (when needed and if there's no garbage collection or similar mechanism)
 String assignment
 String comparison
 String cloning and copying
 Check if a string is empty
 Append a byte to a string
 Extract a substring from a string
 Replace every occurrence of a byte (or a string) in a string with another string
 Join strings


Possible contexts of use: compression algorithms (like LZW compression), L-systems (manipulation of symbols), many more.




 
Clear-Host
 
## String creation (which is string assignment):
Write-Host "`nString creation (which is string assignment):" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host '[string]$s = "Hello cruel world"' -ForegroundColor Yellow
[string]$s = "Hello cruel world"
 
## String (or any variable) destruction:
Write-Host "`nString (or any variable) destruction:" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host 'Remove-Variable -Name s -Force' -ForegroundColor Yellow
Remove-Variable -Name s -Force
 
## Now reassign the variable:
Write-Host "`nNow reassign the variable:" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host '[string]$s = "Hello cruel world"' -ForegroundColor Yellow
[string]$s = "Hello cruel world"
 
Write-Host "`nString comparison -- default is case insensitive:" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host '$s -eq "HELLO CRUEL WORLD"' -ForegroundColor Yellow
$s -eq "HELLO CRUEL WORLD"
Write-Host '$s -match "HELLO CRUEL WORLD"' -ForegroundColor Yellow
$s -match "HELLO CRUEL WORLD"
Write-Host '$s -cmatch "HELLO CRUEL WORLD"' -ForegroundColor Yellow
$s -cmatch "HELLO CRUEL WORLD"
 
## Copy a string:
Write-Host "`nCopy a string:" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host '$t = $s' -ForegroundColor Yellow
$t = $s
 
## Check if a string is empty:
Write-Host "`nCheck if a string is empty:" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host 'if ($s -eq "") {"String is empty."} else {"String = $s"}' -ForegroundColor Yellow
if ($s -eq "") {"String is empty."} else {"String = $s"}
 
## Append a byte to a string:
Write-Host "`nAppend a byte to a string:" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host "`$s += [char]46`n`$s" -ForegroundColor Yellow
$s += [char]46
$s
 
## Extract (and display) substring from a string:
Write-Host "`nExtract (and display) substring from a string:" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host '"Is the world $($s.Substring($s.IndexOf("c"),5))?"' -ForegroundColor Yellow
"Is the world $($s.Substring($s.IndexOf("c"),5))?"
 
## Replace every occurrence of a byte (or a string) in a string with another string:
Write-Host "`nReplace every occurrence of a byte (or a string) in a string with another string:" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host "`$t = `$s -replace `"cruel`", `"beautiful`"`n`$t" -ForegroundColor Yellow
$t = $s -replace "cruel", "beautiful"
$t
 
## Join strings:
Write-Host "`nJoin strings [1]:" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host '"Is the world $($s.Split()[1]) or $($t.Split()[1])?"' -ForegroundColor Yellow
"Is the world $($s.Split()[1]) or $($t.Split()[1])?"
Write-Host "`nJoin strings [2]:" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host '"{0} or {1}... I don''t care." -f (Get-Culture).TextInfo.ToTitleCase($s.Split()[1]), $t.Split()[1]' -ForegroundColor Yellow
"{0} or {1}... I don't care." -f (Get-Culture).TextInfo.ToTitleCase($s.Split()[1]), $t.Split()[1]
Write-Host "`nJoin strings [3] (display an integer array using the -join operater):" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host '1..12 -join ", "' -ForegroundColor Yellow
1..12 -join ", "
 
## Display an integer array in a tablular format:
Write-Host "`nMore string madness... display an integer array in a tablular format:" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host '1..12 | Format-Wide {$_.ToString().PadLeft(2)}-Column 3 -Force' -NoNewline -ForegroundColor Yellow
1..12 | Format-Wide {$_.ToString().PadLeft(2)} -Column 3 -Force
 