Is there a indexOf/lastIndexOf as it is available in java's String class?

Could not find that function in basex. Other xquery implementations seem to script this in xquery itself via declare function...

This might help: http://www.xqueryfunctions.com/xq/functx_index-of-string-last.html

You may include all FunctX functions by installing the repo module:

http://docs.basex.org/wiki/Packaging

Hth, C.