Question

I managed to cobble together this statement based on lots of help and copying and pasting. It basically returns the first x number of words in a string and im using it as a helper in my app.

Could someone please help me understand how I would add a condition to say if the actual string is less than x words don’t add the finishing bit (which is a …). So in the equation below I’ like the ‘finish’ section to only be added if they are more than the number of words passed into the equation.

 def first_x_words(str,n=20,finish='…')
    str.split(' ')[0,n].inject{|sum,word| sum + ' ' + word} + finish
 end

Actually – if I could make it more complicated, is it possible, after I find a condition where there are less than x words, to check to see if the last 4 characters are </p> and if they are, remove them.

Thanks,
Adam

Answer 1

This should do what you’re looking for:

def first_x_words(str, n = 20, finish = '…')
  # By default, Ruby will split on whitespace, so no
  # argument needs to be passed.
  words = str.split

  # Rebuild 'n' words into a new string.
  truncated = words[0..n-1].inject do |sum, word|
    sum << ' ' << word
  end

  # Either append a finishing string or remove any
  # trailing '</p>' tag.
  if words.length > n
    truncated << finish
  else
    truncated.chomp!("</p>")
  end

  # Return the completed string.
  truncated
end