Question

I was using the TrimStart function to do the following:

var example = "Savings:Save 20% on this stuff";
example = example.TrimStart("Savings:".ToCharArray());

I was expecting this to result in example having a value of “Save 20% on this stuff”.

However, what I got was “e 20% on this stuff”.

After reading the documentation on TrimStart I understand why, but now I’m left wondering if there is a function in .NET that does what I was trying to do in the first place?

Does anyone know of a function so I don’t have to create my own and keep track of it?

Answer 1

I don’t think such a method exists but you can easily do it using StartsWith and Substring:

s = s.StartsWith(toRemove) ? s.Substring(toRemove.Length) : s;

You can even add it as an extension method:

public static class StringExtension
{
    public static string RemoveFromStart(this string s, string toRemove)
    {
        if (s == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("s");
        }

        if (toRemove == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("toRemove");
        }

        if (!s.StartsWith(toRemove))
        {
            return s;
        }

        return s.Substring(toRemove.Length);
    }
}