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startsWith abstract method
bool startsWith(Returns true if this string starts with a match of pattern.
var string = 'Dart';
string.startsWith('D');                       // true
string.startsWith(new RegExp(r'[A-Z][a-z]')); // true
  If index is provided, this method checks if the substring starting at that index starts with a match of pattern:
string.startsWith('art', 1);                  // true
string.startsWith(new RegExp(r'\w{3}'));      // true
  index must not be negative or greater than length.
A RegExp containing '^' does not match if the index is greater than zero. The pattern works on the string as a whole, and does not extract a substring starting at index first:
string.startsWith(new RegExp(r'^art'), 1);    // false
string.startsWith(new RegExp(r'art'), 1);     // true
  Source
bool startsWith(Pattern pattern, [int index = 0]);
  © 2012 the Dart project authors
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v4.0.
 https://api.dartlang.org/stable/1.24.3/dart-core/String/startsWith.html