How to Truncate String within Limited Characters including space

Question

I'm trying to limit the number of characters in a string.

However when I try the following:

Truncate.TruncateString(_longString, 300);

I Still get spaces included beyond 300 characters. Is there an alternative so that spaces are counted within the character limit?

public static string TruncateString (this string value, int maxChars)
{
    return value.Length <= maxChars ? value : value.SubString(0, maxChars) + "...";
}

The Truncate class is not part of the .NET framework. I'd recommend talking to whoever wrote the TruncateString method. — Daniel Mann
– Daniel Mann, Commented Nov 22, 2013 at 20:37
Why a custom class? _longString.Substring(0, 299).Trim() will do what you want. — Bit
– Bit, Commented Nov 22, 2013 at 20:42
Can somebody please explain me how value.SubString(0, maxChars) + "..." will end with spaces? And how can it be longer than maxChars + 3 characters? — Nikolai Samteladze
– Nikolai Samteladze, Commented Nov 22, 2013 at 20:54
There are thousands of right examples of Truncate for a string. (Example) This one fails if the string has more than 300 chars in length because the string returned is 303 chars — Steve
– Steve, Commented Nov 22, 2013 at 20:55

egrunin · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-25 06:40:48Z

2

If you don't need the trailing spaces (and often you don't), you can always do this:

Truncate.TruncateString(_longstring, 300).Trim();

Edit

Although this answer was accepted as correct, the right way is actually to leave the Trim() out of the above statement and instead to put it here:

public static string TruncateString (this string value, int maxChars)
{
    value = value.trim();
    return value.Length <= maxChars ? value : value.SubString(0, maxChars).Trim() + "...";
}

edited Nov 25, 2013 at 6:40

answered Nov 22, 2013 at 20:33

egrunin

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7 Comments

Bit Over a year ago

This will trim the end white spaces before the custom class shortens it, so if the center of the string has a substring of white spaces he still will have the problem.

Bit Over a year ago

@ENC0D3D to make this work do the Trim() on the string after the custom class shortens it.

InCode Over a year ago

Thanks! That worked! Hmm....Now if SO would give split points awards this would benefit both of you.

Bit Over a year ago

@ENC0D3D thanks but I really don't care about the points on these pages, the learning is fun in itself.

Nikolai Samteladze Over a year ago

Please correct me if I am wrong. But in case of a long string TruncateString returns a string that ends with ..., right? What will the call to Trim() do?

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