Question

I built an auto-complete function for my website that queries a database for results. I currently can get the results, make them into hyperlinks, and dynamically add them to the page. Once in a while I get results that are very long (40-50 characters) and I want to cut them down to 20 characters or less. Here is my current code:

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
    url: "autoCompleter2.asmx/GetDatabaseName",
    data: '{"prefixText":"' + $('#tags').val() + '"}',
    dataType: "json",
    success: function(data) {
        $(data.d).each(function(index, value) {
            $("<a />").attr("href", "http://wms.pc.factset.com/sql_database.aspx?name=" + value).appendTo("#databaseHolder").text(value).after("<br />");
        });
    },
});

I have searched all over the internet but I cannot find how to take my “value” variable and cut it into a 20 character sub string. I have seen code like:

$(value).text().substring(0, 2);

but nothing works. Any help would be amazing.

Answer 1

if (value.length > 20) {
    value = value.substr(0, 20);
}

This assumes that value is a sting.

Here is a demo: http://jsfiddle.net/hEjxB/

If value is a DOM element then you can do this:

var $value = $(value),
    text   = $value.text();
if (text.length > 20) {
    $value.text(text.substr(0, 20);
}

Here is a demo: http://jsfiddle.net/hEjxB/1/