# nonspantext proc

Source: https://ref.dm-lang.org/proc/nonspantext
Added in BYOND 510.

### Format
> `nonspantext(Haystack,Needles,Start=1)`

### Returns
> The number of consecutive characters, from the start position, that do NOT match the characters in Needles.

### Args
- `Haystack`: The text string to search.
- `Needles`: A text string with all the characters that should not match.
- `Start`: The text byte position in Haystack in which to begin the search.


This proc is case-sensitive. A common use for this proc is in parsing. For instance nonspantext("apples, oranges",", ") will return 6, because the first 6 characters don't match a comma or a space.

If the start position is negative, the position is counted backwards from the end of the string.

> [!note]
> 
> In strings containing non-ASCII characters, byte position and character position are not the same thing. Use `nonspantext_char()` to work with character counts instead of bytes, at a performance cost. See the [Unicode](https://ref.dm-lang.org/notes/Unicode.md) section for more information.

### See also
- [findtext proc](https://ref.dm-lang.org/proc/findtext.md)
- [spantext proc](https://ref.dm-lang.org/proc/spantext.md)
- [splittext proc](https://ref.dm-lang.org/proc/splittext.md)