Same functionality as this?
https://help.salesforce.com/apex/HTViewSolution?id=000004749&language=en_US

Yep!

This is on our near-term roadmap.

Awesome news, thanks for the insight Zach!

This has been implemented as of Banzai Update 6 Patch 4, now available from the Skuid Releases page.

The following Formula Operators have been added that help with string / text operations:

 - CONTAINS(stringToExamine,stringToLookFor) — returns true/false
 - ENDS_WITH(stringToExamine,stringToLookFor)  — returns true/false
 - STARTS_WITH(stringToExamine,stringToLookFor) — returns true/false
 - LEFT(stringToExamine,numCharacters) — returns a substring of stringToExamine starting from the left and going numCharacters to the right
 - RIGHT(stringToExamine,numCharacters) — returns a substring of stringToExamine starting from the right and going numCharacters to the left

WOOT! 

Awesome news, thank you!  A VERY welcomed addition!