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--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/strings/index.m
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+# Copyright (C) 1996 John W. Eaton
+# 
+# This file is part of Octave.
+# 
+# Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+# under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
+# Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any
+# later version.
+# 
+# Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+# ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
+# for more details.
+# 
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the Free
+# Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
+
+function n = index (s, t)
+
+# usage:  index (s, t)
+#
+# Returns the position of the first occurence of the string T in the
+# string S or 0 if no occurence is found.
+#
+# NOTE: this function does not work for arrays of strings.
+
+# This is patterned after the AWK function of the same name.
+
+# Original version by Kurt Hornik <Kurt.Hornik@ci.tuwien.ac.at>.
+
+  if (nargin != 2)
+    usage ("index (s, t)");
+  endif
+
+  n = 0;
+
+  if (isstr (s) && isstr (t))
+
+    l_s = length (s);
+    l_t = length (t);
+
+    if (l_t <= l_s)
+      tmp = l_s - l_t + 1;
+      for idx = 1 : tmp
+	if (strcmp (substr (s, idx, l_t), t))
+	  n = idx;
+	  return;
+	endif
+      endfor
+    endif
+
+  else
+    error ("index: expecting string arguments");
+  endif
+  
+endfunction