asked on 4/4/2004

Email Client/Server : Splitting up A String

The server stores the message as a string. When the client selects an email to read, i want to display the message but only 50 characters per line. So, a few questions.
1. Should the server send 50 characters at a time, and then the client can just readLine and print. If so, whats the best way for the server to split the string and send.
2. Should the server send the whole string, and then client can split it up and print. I dont see a real difference except that in a real world application you would want the client doing more of the work.
3. Is there a better way?

Thanks

Java

Last Comment

Mick Barry

4/14/2004

CEHJ

4/4/2004

The number of characters per line belongs to the view of a data model. The data model in this case is the message string. Depending on what is inspecting this message, you can change the view to display as many characters per line you wish. Typically this is done in the real world by an email client and is implemented by line wrap in the message display area. The data model remains constant

tricks801

4/4/2004

ASKER

right...but im using the console, and would not like to scroll right to read the long string.

CEHJ

4/4/2004

So the console view could be something like

a. Put the message into a StringBuffer
b. Insert a newline character '\n' every 50 characters
c. Turn it back into a String and print it

or

a. Iterate the char array (char[] messageChars = message.toCharArray())
b. System.out.print(......the message char or if index % 50 == 0, a newline character)

CEHJ

4/4/2004

Personally i prefer the second one:

char[] messageChars = message.toCharArray();
for(int i = 0;i < messageChars;i++) {
      if (i % 50 == 0 && messageChars[i] != '\n') {
            System.out.print('\n');
      }
      else {
            System.out.print(messageChars[i]);
      }
}

CEHJ

4/4/2004

But don't leave that literal 50 in the real thing of course

tricks801

4/4/2004

ASKER

so this should happen client side and the server is still going to send one long string? Is this the message in message.toCharArray()?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

CEHJ

4/4/2004