Javascript strings - getting the char at a certain point

I have a variable:

var text = "hello";
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I want to get the 0 positioned character, so:

var firstChar = text[0];

Simple. In firefox and chrome this works. In IE however i always get back 'undefined'

Any ideas why this might be happening in IE?

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Strings aren't accessible like arrays in IE (prior to IE9). Instead you can use charAt, which is available cross-browser:

var text = "hello";
var firstChar = text.charAt(0);
// firstChar will be 'h'

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You can use .substr().

var firstChar = text.substr(0,1);

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I'm not sure why that doesn't work, but you could try using substr()