--- /dev/null
+## Copyright (C) 1996-2012 Kurt Hornik
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+## your option) any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING. If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {} substr (@var{s}, @var{offset})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {} substr (@var{s}, @var{offset}, @var{len})
+## Return the substring of @var{s} which starts at character number
+## @var{offset} and is @var{len} characters long.
+##
+## Position numbering for offsets begins with 1. If @var{offset} is negative,
+## extraction starts that far from the end of the string.
+##
+## If @var{len} is omitted, the substring extends to the end of @var{S}. A
+## negative value for @var{len} extracts to within @var{len} characters of
+## the end of the string
+##
+## Examples:
+##
+## @example
+## @group
+## substr ("This is a test string", 6, 9)
+## @result{} "is a test"
+## substr ("This is a test string", -11)
+## @result{} "test string"
+## substr ("This is a test string", -11, -7)
+## @result{} "test"
+## @end group
+## @end example
+##
+## This function is patterned after the equivalent function in Perl.
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: Kurt Hornik <Kurt.Hornik@wu-wien.ac.at>
+## Adapted-By: jwe
+
+function t = substr (s, offset, len)
+
+ if (nargin < 2 || nargin > 3)
+ print_usage ();
+ endif
+
+ if (! ischar (s))
+ error ("substr: S must be a string or string array");
+ elseif (! isscalar (offset) || (nargin == 3 && ! isscalar (len)))
+ error ("substr: OFFSET and LEN must be scalar integers");
+ endif
+
+ offset = fix (offset);
+ nc = columns (s);
+ if (abs (offset) > nc || offset == 0)
+ error ("substr: OFFSET = %d out of range", offset);
+ endif
+
+ if (offset <= 0)
+ offset += nc + 1;
+ endif
+
+ if (nargin == 2)
+ eos = nc;
+ else
+ len = fix (len);
+ if (len < 0)
+ eos = nc + len;
+ else
+ eos = offset + len - 1;
+ endif
+ endif
+
+ if (eos > nc)
+ error ("substr: length LEN = %d out of range", len);
+ elseif (offset > eos && len != 0)
+ error ("substr: No overlap with chosen values of OFFSET and LEN");
+ endif
+
+ t = s(:, offset:eos);
+
+endfunction
+
+
+%!assert (substr ("This is a test string", 6, 9), "is a test");
+%!assert (substr ("This is a test string", -11), "test string");
+%!assert (substr ("This is a test string", -11, 4), "test");
+%!assert (substr ("This is a test string", -11, -7), "test");
+%!assert (substr ("This is a test string", 1, -7), "This is a test");
+%!assert (isempty (substr ("This is a test string", 1, 0)));
+
+%% Test input validation
+%!error substr ()
+%!error substr ("foo", 2, 3, 4)
+%!error substr (ones (5, 1), 1, 1)
+%!error substr ("foo", ones(2,2))
+%!error substr ("foo", 1, ones(2,2))
+%!error substr ("foo", 0)
+%!error substr ("foo", 5)
+%!error substr ("foo", 1, 5)
+%!error substr ("foo", -1, 5)
+%!error substr ("foo", 2, -5)
+