// extract front part of string prior to searchString
function getFront(mainStr,searchStr){
	foundOffset = mainStr.indexOf(searchStr)
	if (foundOffset == -1) {
		return null
	}
	return mainStr.substring(0,foundOffset)
}

// extract back end of string after searchString
function getEnd(mainStr,searchStr) {
	foundOffset = mainStr.indexOf(searchStr)
	if (foundOffset == -1) {
		return null
	}
	return mainStr.substring(foundOffset+searchStr.length,mainStr.length)
}

// insert insertString immediately before searchString
function insertString(mainStr,searchStr,insertStr) {
	var front = getFront(mainStr,searchStr)
	var end = getEnd(mainStr,searchStr)
	if (front != null && end != null) {
		return front + insertStr + searchStr + end
	}
	return null
}

// remove deleteString
function deleteString(mainStr,deleteStr) {
	return replaceString(mainStr,deleteStr,"")
}

// replace searchString with replaceString
function replaceString(mainStr,searchStr,replaceStr) {
	var front = getFront(mainStr,searchStr)
	var end = getEnd(mainStr,searchStr)
	if (front != null && end != null) {
		return front + replaceStr + end
	}
	return null
}

//remove leading and trailing spaces from a string
function trimString(str) {
	var tstr = '' ;
	str = '' + str;
	if (str.length > 0) {
		var allstr = str.split(" ");
		for (i = 0 ; i < allstr.length ; i++ ) {
			if ( (allstr[i].length > 0) && (allstr[i] != " ") ) {
				if (tstr.length > 0) tstr += " ";
				tstr += allstr[i] ;
			}
		}
	}
	return tstr ;
}