How to Truncate a String in Java

Java is a powerful and widely used programming language. It is often necessary to truncate strings in Java in order to limit the amount of text that is displayed. Truncation is when you reduce the length of a string without altering its content. This can be useful for displaying long text strings in limited spaces. Here is an overview of how to truncate a string in Java.

Using the substring() Method

The simplest and most commonly used way to truncate a String in Java is to use the substring() method. The substring() method is part of the String class and is used to retrieve a portion of a larger String. It takes two parameters: the starting index of the substring and the length of the substring. For example, the following code snippet creates a String “Hello World” and then uses the substring() method to truncate it to “Hello”:

String str = "Hello World";
String truncatedStr = str.substring(0, 5);
// truncatedStr is now “Hello”

You can use this method to easily truncate a String to the desired length. This can be useful if you want to display only a certain number of characters of a text string.

Using the split() Method

Another way to truncate a String in Java is to use the split() method. The split() method can be used to divide a String into multiple parts based on a given character or expression. You can use this method to create an array of Strings from which you can extract the desired substring. For example, the following code snippet creates a String “Hello World” and then uses the split() method to create an array of Strings, with each element being one word:

String str = "Hello World";
String[] arr = str.split(" ");
// arr[0] is now “Hello”

You can use this method to easily truncate a String to the desired length. This can be useful if you want to display only a certain number of words of a text string.

Conclusion

Truncating a String in Java is a relatively straightforward task. The most common methods for doing so are using the substring() method or the split() method. Both of these methods are fairly simple to use and allow you to easily truncate a String to the desired length.