Truncate string to the first n words

Question

What\'s the best way to truncate a string to the first n words?

Answer 1

You could do it like this:

s     = "what's the best way to truncate a ruby string to the first n words?"
n     = 6
trunc = s[/(\S+\s+){#{n}}/].strip

if you don't mind making a copy.

You could also apply Sawa's Improvement (wish I was still a mathematician, that would be a great name for a theorem) by adjusting the whitespace detection:

trunc = s[/(\s*\S+){#{n}}/]

If you have to deal with an n that is greater than the number of words in s then you could use this variant:

s[/(\S+(\s+)?){,#{n}}/].strip