Jakarta Commons Cookbook

2.3. Abbreviating Strings

Problem

You want to abbreviate a string.

Solution

Use StringUtils.abbreviate() . Supply the string to abbreviate, and the maximum allowed length for the abbreviation. The following example will abbreviate the supplied text messages to 10 characters:

String test = "This is a test of the abbreviation."
String test2 = "Test"

System.out.println( StringUtils.abbreviate( test, 10 ) );
System.out.println( StringUtils.abbreviate( test2, 10 ) );

Here is the output of two string abbreviations:

This is...
Test

Discussion

StringUtils.abbreviate( ) takes a string and abbreviates it, if necessary. When abbreviating to 20 characters, if the text is less than 20 characters, the method simply returns the original text. If the text is greater than 20 characters, the method displays 17 characters followed by three ellipses. Abbreviating a piece of text to 20 characters guarantees that the text will occupy 20 characters or less:

String message = "Who do you think you are?";
String abbrev = StringUtils.abbreviate( message, 20 );
String message2 = "Testing";
String abbrev2 = StringUtils.abbreviate( message, 40 );
System.out.println( "Subject: " + message );
System.out.println( "Subject2: " + messages2);

This simple example abbreviates the first message variable, message, to “Who do you think...?” The second message variable, message2, is not affected by the abbreviation because it is less than 40 characters long; abbrev2 will equal the contents of message2.

StringUtils.abbreviate( ...