Taking a character off the end of a string.

[AJArmstron@aol.com]

Hello. I really need a solution for removing an unwanted carriage return at the end of a string. I have used one method, but it takes too long!!!!

I am loading text files and putting the content into a JTextArea. However, I found that when I put the content of the string into the JTextArea there was always an extra carriage return put in at the end!

My solution was to make a new string, but leave out the last character! I used the following code:
// (The string concerned is called newtext)

String r="";
char c;
for (int i = 0; i < (newtext[0].length()-1); i ++) {
r += newtext[0].charAt(i);
}

This works really well, until I import a text file of a certain size and then the program effectively "freezes" because this process takes so long (in fact a really long time!)

I would be very grateful for alternative solutions to removing the last character in the string!

Thank you so much for helping me.

[iluxa]

No offense, but your approach is terrible. What's happening behind the scenes is this:

String r="";
char c;
for (int i = 0; i < (newtext[0].length()-1); i ++) {
  [COLOR="Red"]r = new StringBuffer().append(r).append(newText[0].charAt(i)).toString();[/COLOR]
}

so no wonder it takes forever.

One fix is to re-work your code like this:

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
char c;
for (int i = 0; i < (newtext[0].length()-1); i ++) {
  sb.append(newText[0].charAt(i));
}
String r = sb.toString();

try this and you'll see DRAMATIC improvement in performance.


a better still approach is this:

String r = newtext[0].substring(0, newtext[0].length()-1);

and you're done.


the ultimate way to take care of whitespace is this:

String r = newtext[0].trim();

and you're done. trim() removes white space from both the beginning and the end of the string.



cheers!

[AJArmstron@aol.com]

Thank you so much for your post. I am sure that you have delivered the solution.

The trim() function is a good idea, however, I cannot rule out the possibility that someone might intentionally have a space at the start of a text file!!!

I believe this then makes the best solution:
String r = newtext[0].substring(0, newtext[0].length()-1);

So, I assume that this one line will do it all for me!

Thank you so much!

[AJArmstron@aol.com]

iluxa - thank you for posting your solution. It worked and I am very grateful to you for taking the time to give the answer!

Out of interest - I commented in my previous post that trim() might not be suitable here. However, I was wondering is there a trimend function?

[iluxa]

not that I know about... Not in standard Java libraries anyway. You can do the trick with regular expressions, but that will definitely not help the performance of your code.

[AJArmstron@aol.com]

iluxa - can I just check for clarity that when you write "that will not help the performance of my code" are you referring to the idea of trimEnd()?