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perl: Truncate a string to a maximum length

Hi

How do I truncate a string to a maximum length but at a white space?
I know substr(0,15) would work but I don't want to end in the middle of a word

the result of the code bellow should be $ShortString = "Lorem ipsum" because the 15th character is the "l" in dolor!

In reality the length would be 150 but it's easier to count 15 characters

Once I have $ShortString this will form part of a URL do I need escape it?

So

<a href="$http://example.com?foo=bar&mystring=$ShortString>My Link</a>

my $LongString="Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas fermentum, nunc in vestibulum lobortis, sapien dui aliquam risus, vitae tincidunt risus augue id dolor. Nullam.";

my $len = length($LongString);

print "Lenth of LongString = $len\n";

my $ShortString;

if ($len > 15){
    ($ShortString) = $LongString =~ m/^(.*[15])?<=\b/
}
else{
    $ShortString = $LongString
}
print "ShortString = $ShortString\n";

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David Favor

If I understand what your asking...

Do this in two steps.

# Truncate the string at character 150
$str = substr($str,0,150);

# Trim any trailing whitespace, along with any non-whitespace, if any non whitespace exists
$str =~ s/\s+[^\s]*//o;

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trevor1940

ASKER

David
you missed the s from
$str =~ s/\s+[^\s]*//o;

However using a string length of 15 it gives

ShortString = Lorem dol

Not $ShortString = "Lorem ipsum"

David Favor

Sure enough! Just edited the code for future views.

David Favor

Since your initial question was unclear about all use cases, you'll have to modify the solution to match all your cases.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

wilcoxon

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trevor1940

ASKER

Thank you wilcoxon

David
Sorry if I didn't explain what I was after clearly enough