in packages/fbjs/src/unicode/UnicodeUtils.js [180:194]
function substring(str, start, end) {
start = start || 0;
end = (end === undefined) ? Infinity : (end || 0);
if (start < 0) {
start = 0;
}
if (end < 0) {
end = 0;
}
const length = Math.abs(end - start);
start = (start < end) ? start : end;
return substr(str, start, length);
}