Keep only first 60 characters of a string [duplicate]

Question

This question already has answers here:

What method in the String class returns only the first N characters? (14 answers)

Closed 5 years ago.

Guys I have a string in Model.Products[i].Description. Of unknown length.

I want to have only the first 60 characters of it in a variable.

  var data = Model.Products[i].Description;
  var temp = string.Join(string.Empty,data.Take(60));

Gives me a null value exception error. What did I do wrong ?

Any help ?

Answer 1

Use Substring

Note: you need to check you input's length

string data = Model.Products[i].Description;
string temp = string.Empty;
if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(data) && data.Length >= 60)
   temp = data.Substring(0,60);
else
   temp = data;

Answer 2

You can use

var temp = data.Substring(0, Math.Min(data.Length, 60));

If the length of the string is less then 60 it will take the length of the string.

Answer 3

Wow, you actually used the method name as a tag on your question, you were so close ;)

var trim = data.Length > 60 ? 60 : data.Length;
data.Substring(0, trim);

Answer 4

All the answers here are ignoring the problem. data is null here. Debug your program and make sure that Model.Products[i].Description is not null.

Your current method to get the first 60 characters is a bit obtuse, but correct. The problem is you're retrieving invalid data before you even start trying to get the 60 characters.

If a null value is considered valid for you (that is, you expect it to be null sometimes) then you need to do a null check first then decide what you want to do. Do you want temp to be null or an empty string?

---

Here is sample code performing the check, not ideal code but designed to demonstrate the problem:

string data = Model.Products[i].Description;
string temp;
if (data == null)
{
    temp = //? what do you want "temp" to be if data is null?
}
else
{
    temp = string.Join(string.Empty,data.Take(60));
}

Answer 5

you are using string.Empty which is null, try:

if (data.Length>=60)
{
  temp=data.Substring(0,60);
}

Answer 6

var temp = data.Substring(0, 60);

NOTE: check if string (i.e. data) is null or empty and its length prior to calling Substring method.

Following is example (As stated in other valid answers)

string temp = string.Empty;
if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(data) && data.Length >= 60)
   temp = data.Substring(0,60);
else
   temp = data;