Truncate string on whole words in .NET C#

Question

I am trying to truncate some long text in C#, but I don\'t want my string to be cut off part way through a word. Does anyone have a function that I can use to truncate my st

Answer 1

Heres what i came up with. This is to get the rest of the sentence also in chunks.

public static List SplitTheSentenceAtWord(this string originalString, int length)
    {
        try
        {
            List truncatedStrings = new List();
            if (originalString == null || originalString.Trim().Length <= length)
            {
                truncatedStrings.Add(originalString);
                return truncatedStrings;
            }
            int index = originalString.Trim().LastIndexOf(" ");

            while ((index + 3) > length)
                index = originalString.Substring(0, index).Trim().LastIndexOf(" ");

            if (index > 0)
            {
                string retValue = originalString.Substring(0, index) + "...";
                truncatedStrings.Add(retValue);

                string shortWord2 = originalString;
                if (retValue.EndsWith("..."))
                {
                    shortWord2 = retValue.Replace("...", "");
                }
                shortWord2 = originalString.Substring(shortWord2.Length);

                if (shortWord2.Length > length) //truncate it further
                {
                    List retValues = SplitTheSentenceAtWord(shortWord2.TrimStart(), length);
                    truncatedStrings.AddRange(retValues);
                }
                else
                {
                    truncatedStrings.Add(shortWord2.TrimStart());
                }
                return truncatedStrings;
            }
            var retVal_Last = originalString.Substring(0, length - 3);
            truncatedStrings.Add(retVal_Last + "...");
            if (originalString.Length > length)//truncate it further
            {
                string shortWord3 = originalString;
                if (originalString.EndsWith("..."))
                {
                    shortWord3 = originalString.Replace("...", "");
                }
                shortWord3 = originalString.Substring(retVal_Last.Length);
                List retValues = SplitTheSentenceAtWord(shortWord3.TrimStart(), length);

                truncatedStrings.AddRange(retValues);
            }
            else
            {
                truncatedStrings.Add(retVal_Last + "...");
            }
            return truncatedStrings;
        }
        catch
        {
            return new List { originalString };
        }
    }