Limiting the number of characters in a string, and chopping off the rest

Question

I need to create a summary table at the end of a log with some values that are obtained inside a class. The table needs to be printed in fixed-width format. I have the cod

Answer 1

Use this to cut off the non needed characters:

String.substring(0, maxLength); 

Example:

String aString ="123456789";
String cutString = aString.substring(0, 4);
// Output is: "1234" 

To ensure you are not getting an IndexOutOfBoundsException when the input string is less than the expected length do the following instead:

int maxLength = (inputString.length() < MAX_CHAR)?inputString.length():MAX_CHAR;
inputString = inputString.substring(0, maxLength);

If you want your integers and doubles to have a certain length then I suggest you use NumberFormat to format your numbers instead of cutting off their string representation.