Question

I currently have an ArrayList of strings in Java, but I would like to truncate (or limit) the number of characters in each strings to 20. I couldn’t find a method to do so.

Example:

"hello this is one of the descriptions in an array list, please limit me to 20"

should become:

"hello this is one of"

Answer 1

Some possible ways:

• Extend ArrayList and override its add(...) methods. I don’t like this.
• Wrap your ArrayList and in the public methods that add or modify its contents, limit the number of characters. This idea I like much more!
• Edit: Or don’t have an ArrayList<String> but instead an ArrayList<MyCustomClass> where MyCustomClass’s constructor or setter methods truncate the Strings as needed. I like this one too!