Joining strings

As we mentioned in the introduction, strings are binaries. In this recipe, we will use the binary concatenation operator (<>) to join strings.

Getting ready

In this recipe, we will use an IEx session, so let's start it by entering iex in our command line.

How to do it…

To join (concatenate) two strings, follow these steps:

1. Define string_one:

   iex(1)> string_one = "Hello"
   "Hello"
   

2. Define string_two:

   iex(2)> string_two = "World"
   "World"
   

3. Join both strings:

   iex(3)> string_one <> string_two
   "HelloWorld"
   

4. Make it look a lot better:

   iex(4)> string_one <> " " <> string_two <> "!"
   "Hello World!"
   

How it works…

The Kernel module defines a macro to concatenate two binaries. Think of this macro as a <> operator that works by appending the binary defined on the right-hand side to the binary defined on the left-hand side. In step 3, we used previously defined...