Ellipsis with C# (ending on a full word)

Question

I\'m trying to implement ellipsis in Umbraco, the requirement being 15 characters of intro text but always ending on a full word.

I thought of using XSLT, but then r

Answer 1

if (text.Length <= length) return text;
int pos = text.IndexOf(" ", length) ;
if (pos >= 0)
    return text.Substring(0, pos) + "...";
return text;

Edit: This is the program I tested it with:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication1 {
    class Program {
        static void Main(string[] args) {
            for (int i = 0; i < 40; ++i) {
                string s = Ellipsis("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur adipiscing elit.", i);
                Console.WriteLine("{0} : {1}", i, s);
            }
        }

        static public string Ellipsis(string text, int length) {
          if (text.Length <= length) return text;
          int pos = text.IndexOf(" ", length) ;
          if (pos >= 0)
            return text.Substring(0, pos) + "...";
          return text;
        }
    }
}

Here is output:

0 : Lorem...
1 : Lorem...
2 : Lorem...
3 : Lorem...
4 : Lorem...
5 : Lorem...
6 : Lorem ipsum...
7 : Lorem ipsum...
8 : Lorem ipsum...
9 : Lorem ipsum...
10 : Lorem ipsum...
11 : Lorem ipsum...
12 : Lorem ipsum dolor...
13 : Lorem ipsum dolor...
14 : Lorem ipsum dolor...
15 : Lorem ipsum dolor...
16 : Lorem ipsum dolor...
17 : Lorem ipsum dolor...
18 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit...
19 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit...
20 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit...
21 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit...
22 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,...
23 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,...
24 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,...
25 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,...
26 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,...
27 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,...
28 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
29 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
30 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
31 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
32 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
33 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
34 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
35 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
36 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
37 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
38 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
39 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...

Answer 2

I want to give an alternative implemenation because the code given by Preet does not ensure a maximum text length. I had to implement a word ellipsis function that returns a hard length limited text word ellipsis trimming. Additionally punctuation marks are also trimmed just before the ellipsis.

public class WordProcessing
{
    static public string WordEllipsis(string text, int maxLength, string ellipsis = "...")
    {
        string result;

        if (text.Length <= maxLength)
        {
            result = text;
        }
        else if (maxLength <= ellipsis.Length)
        {
            result = ellipsis.Substring(0, maxLength);
        }
        else
        {
            result = text.Substring(0, maxLength - ellipsis.Length);
            var lastWordPosition = result.LastIndexOf(' ');

            if (lastWordPosition < 0)
            {
                lastWordPosition = 0;
            }
            result = result.Substring(0, lastWordPosition).Trim(new[] { '.', ',', '!', '?' }) + ellipsis;
        }

        return result;
    }
}

Unit tested - works as a charm.

Output:

0 : 
1 : .
2 : ..
3 : ...
4 : ...
5 : ...
6 : ...
7 : ...
8 : ...
9 : Lorem...
10 : Lorem...
11 : Lorem...
12 : Lorem...
13 : Lorem...
14 : Lorem...
15 : Lorem ipsum...
16 : Lorem ipsum...
17 : Lorem ipsum...
18 : Lorem ipsum...
19 : Lorem ipsum...
20 : Lorem ipsum...
21 : Lorem ipsum dolor...
22 : Lorem ipsum dolor...
23 : Lorem ipsum dolor...
24 : Lorem ipsum dolor...
25 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit...
26 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit...
27 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit...
28 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit...
29 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit...
30 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit...
31 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet...
32 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet...
33 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet...
34 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet...
35 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet...
36 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
37 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
38 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
39 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
40 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
41 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
42 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
43 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
44 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
45 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
46 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
47 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet...
48 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
49 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
50 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
51 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
52 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
53 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
54 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
55 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
56 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
57 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
58 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur...
59 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur adipiscing...
60 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur adipiscing...
61 : Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, amet consectetur adipiscing elit.