gtk-editable-chars (editable &key start end)

editable -- a gtk-editable object
start -- an integer with the start of text
end -- an integer with the end of text

A string with the contents of the widget.

Retrieves a sequence of characters. The characters that are retrieved are those characters at positions from start up to, but not including end. If end is negative, then the characters retrieved are those characters from start to the end of the text.

Note that positions are specified in characters, not bytes.