Forum Discussion

Mis3's avatar
Mis3
Frequent Contributor
3 years ago

Substring not working

I am trying to output the first X characters of a XML response and getting error. Line in the code below, MESSAGE2 can be very long and I like to output only the first 40 characters. Please help. ...
  • ChrisAdams's avatar
    ChrisAdams
    3 years ago

    Hi,

     

    I honestly cannot think of a way to use an 'if' against string length decision without calculating the length.

     

    Your approach looks good, but if its making it more concise that you're after, then try...

     

    if ( MESSAGE2.length() > 92 ) { MESSAGE2 = MESSAGE2.substring(0,91) }

     

    You might want to have a read about Ternary operators (https://groovy-programming.com/post/175536037619) which are very concise conditionals, but you'll still need to work out the length.

     

  • Mis3's avatar
    Mis3
    Frequent Contributor
    3 years ago

    I tried this and it is working:

    int str_len = MESSAGE2.length()
    if (str_len>92) { MESSAGE2 = MESSAGE2.substring(0,91) }

     

    In this method, I have to determine the length of the string first.

    Is there a way I can yield the same result without knowing the length first? 

    In other words, I like to output the first 92 characters of MESSAGE2.  If  MESSAGE2 has less characters, output the whole string.

     

     

    • ChrisAdams's avatar
      ChrisAdams
      Champion Level 3
      3 years ago

      Hi,

       

      I honestly cannot think of a way to use an 'if' against string length decision without calculating the length.

       

      Your approach looks good, but if its making it more concise that you're after, then try...

       

      if ( MESSAGE2.length() > 92 ) { MESSAGE2 = MESSAGE2.substring(0,91) }

       

      You might want to have a read about Ternary operators (https://groovy-programming.com/post/175536037619) which are very concise conditionals, but you'll still need to work out the length.

       

      • Mis3's avatar
        Mis3
        Frequent Contributor
        3 years ago
        if ( MESSAGE2.length() > 92 ) { MESSAGE2 = MESSAGE2.substring(0,91) }

        Yes, this is better.  I will use this.  Thanks.  


        I found this but it does not work for me.  This function does not require string length in advance. 

        StringUtils.substring("abc", 2, 4)   = "c"
StringUtils.substring("abc", 4, 6)   = ""