How to lowercase a string except for first character with C# - c#

How do convert a string to lowercase except for the first character?
Can this be completed with LINQ?
Thanks

If you only have one word in the string, you can use TextInfo.ToTitleCase. No need to use Linq.
As #Guffa noted:
This will convert any string to title case, so, "hello world" and "HELLO WORLD" would both be converted to "Hello World".
To achieve exectly what you asked (convert all characters to lower, except the first one), you can do the following:
string mostLower = myString.Substring(0, 1) + myString.Substring(1).ToLower();

This can be done with simple string operations:
s = s.Substring(0, 1) + s.Substring(1).ToLower();
Note that this does exactly what you asked for, i.e. it converts all characters to lower case except the first one that is left unchanged.
If you instead also want to change the first character to upper case, you would do:
s = s.Substring(0, 1).ToUpper() + s.Substring(1).ToLower();
Note that this code assumes that there is at least two characters in the strings. If there is a possibility that it's shorter, you should of course test for that first.

String newString = new String(str.Select((ch, index) => (index == 0) ? ch : Char.ToLower(ch)).ToArray());

Use namespace: using System.Globalization;
...
string value = CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ToTitleCase("hello");
EDIT
This code work only if its single word .For convert all character into lower except first letter check Guffa Answer.
string value = myString.Substring(0, 1) + myString.Substring(1).ToLower();

Not sure you can do it in linq here is a non-linq approach:
public static string FirstCap(string value)
{
string result = String.Empty;
if(!String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
{
if(value.Length == 1)
{
result = value.ToUpper();
}
else
{
result = value.Substring(0,1).ToString().ToUpper() + value.Substring(1).ToLower();
}
}
return result;
}

based on guffa's example above (slightly amended). you could convert that to an extension method (please pardon the badly named method :)):
public static string UpperFirst(this string source)
{
return source.ToLower().Remove(0, 1)
.Insert(0, source.Substring(0, 1).ToUpper());
}
usage:
var myNewString = myOldString.UpperFirst();
// or simply referenced as myOldString.UpperFirst() where required
cheers guffa

var initialString = "Hello hOW r u?";
var res = string.Concat(initialString..ToUpper().Substring(0, 1), initialString.ToLower().Substring(1));

You can use an extension method:
static class StringExtensions
{
public static string ToLowerFirst(this string text)
=> !string.IsNullOrEmpty(text)
? $"{text.Substring(0, 1).ToLower()}{text.Substring(1)}"
: text;
}
Unit tests as well (using FluentAssertions and Microsoft UnitTesting):
[TestClass]
public class StringExtensionsTests
{
[TestMethod]
public void ToLowerFirst_ShouldReturnCorrectValue()
=> "ABCD"
.ToLowerFirst()
.Should()
.Be("aBCD");
[TestMethod]
public void ToLowerFirst_WhenStringIsEmpty_ShouldReturnCorrectValue()
=> string.Empty
.ToLowerFirst()
.Should()
.Be(string.Empty);
}

Related

Replace a substring

I have an input string. I need to replace its prefix (until first dot) with an other string.
The method signature:
string MyPrefixReplace(string input, string replacer)
Examples:
string res = MyPrefixReplace("12.345.6789", "000")
res = "000.345.6789";
res = MyPrefixReplace("908.345.6789", "1")
res = "1.345.6789";
Is there a way not to extract a sub-string before first dot and make a Replace**?
I.e - I don't want this solution
int i = input.IndexOf(".");
string rep = input.Substring(0,i);
input.Replace(rep,replacer);
Thanks
You could use String.Split
public string MyPrefixReplace(string source, string value, char delimiter = '.')
{
var parts = source.Split(delimiter);
parts[0] = value;
return String.Join(delimiter.ToString(), parts);
}
Live demo
Using String.IndexOf and String.Substring ist the most efficient way. In your approach you have used the wrong overload of Substring. String.Replace is pointless anyway since you don't want to replace all occurences of the first part but only the first part.
Therefore you don't have to take but to skip the the first part and prefix another. This works as desired:
public static string MyPrefixReplace(string input, string replacer, char prefixChar = '.')
{
int index = input.IndexOf(prefixChar);
if (index == -1)
return input;
return replacer + input.Substring(index);
}
Your input:
string result = MyPrefixReplace("908.345.6789", "1"); // 1.345.6789
result = MyPrefixReplace("12.345.6789", "000"); // 000.345.6789
Personally, I'd split the string up to get around this problem, although there's obviously other ways of doing this, this would be my approach:
string Input = "123.456.789"
string[] SplitInput = Input.Split('.');
SplitInput[0] = "321";
string Output = String.Join('.', SplitInput);
Output should be "321.456.789".

How can I truncate my strings with a "..." if they are too long?

Hope somebody has a good idea. I have strings like this:
abcdefg
abcde
abc
What I need is for them to be trucated to show like this if more than a specified lenght:
abc ..
abc ..
abc
Is there any simple C# code I can use for this?
Here is the logic wrapped up in an extension method:
public static string Truncate(this string value, int maxChars)
{
return value.Length <= maxChars ? value : value.Substring(0, maxChars) + "...";
}
Usage:
var s = "abcdefg";
Console.WriteLine(s.Truncate(3));
All very good answers, but to clean it up just a little, if your strings are sentences, don't break your string in the middle of a word.
private string TruncateForDisplay(this string value, int length)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(value)) return string.Empty;
var returnValue = value;
if (value.Length > length)
{
var tmp = value.Substring(0, length) ;
if (tmp.LastIndexOf(' ') > 0)
returnValue = tmp.Substring(0, tmp.LastIndexOf(' ') ) + " ...";
}
return returnValue;
}
public string TruncString(string myStr, int THRESHOLD)
{
if (myStr.Length > THRESHOLD)
return myStr.Substring(0, THRESHOLD) + "...";
return myStr;
}
Ignore the naming convention it's just in case he actually needs the THRESHOLD variable or if it's always the same size.
Alternatively
string res = (myStr.Length > THRESHOLD) ? myStr.Substring(0, THRESHOLD) + ".." : myStr;
Here's a version that accounts for the length of the ellipses:
public static string Truncate(this string value, int maxChars)
{
const string ellipses = "...";
return value.Length <= maxChars ? value : value.Substring(0, maxChars - ellipses.Length) + ellipses;
}
There isn't a built in method in the .NET Framework which does this, however this is a very easy method to write yourself. Here are the steps, try making it yourself and let us know what you come up with.
Create a method, perhaps an extension method public static void TruncateWithEllipsis(this string value, int maxLength)
Check to see if the passed in value is greater than the maxLength specified using the Length property. If the value not greater than maxLength, just return the value.
If we didn't return the passed in value as is, then we know we need to truncate. So we need to get a smaller section of the string using the SubString method. That method will return a smaller section of a string based on a specified start and end value. The end position is what was passed in by the maxLength parameter, so use that.
Return the sub section of the string plus the ellipsis.
A great exercise for later would be to update the method and have it break only after full words. You can also create an overload to specify how you would like to show a string has been truncated. For example, the method could return " (click for more)" instead of "..." if your application is set up to show more detail by clicking.
Code behind:
string shorten(sting s)
{
//string s = abcdefg;
int tooLongInt = 3;
if (s.Length > tooLongInt)
return s.Substring(0, tooLongInt) + "..";
return s;
}
Markup:
<td><%= shorten(YOUR_STRING_HERE) %></td>
Maybe it is better to implement a method for that purpose:
string shorten(sting yourStr)
{
//Suppose you have a string yourStr, toView and a constant value
string toView;
const int maxView = 3;
if (yourStr.Length > maxView)
toView = yourStr.Substring(0, maxView) + " ..."; // all you have is to use Substring(int, int) .net method
else
toView = yourStr;
return toView;
}
I found this question after searching for "C# truncate ellipsis". Using various answers, I created my own solution with the following features:
An extension method
Add an ellipsis
Make the ellipsis optional
Validate that the string is not null or empty before attempting to truncate it.
public static class StringExtensions
{
public static string Truncate(this string value,
int maxLength,
bool addEllipsis = false)
{
// Check for valid string before attempting to truncate
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(value)) return value;
// Proceed with truncating
var result = string.Empty;
if (value.Length > maxLength)
{
result = value.Substring(0, maxLength);
if (addEllipsis) result += "...";
}
else
{
result = value;
}
return result;
}
}
I hope this helps someone else.
string s = "abcdefg";
if (s.length > 3)
{
s = s.substring(0,3);
}
You can use the Substring function.
Refactor with new C# features just for disclosure:
Nullables (C# 7)
Expression-bodied members (C# 6 and 7)
Ranges on strings (C# 8)
// public static class StringExtensions { ...
private static string? Truncate(this string? value, int maxChars)
=>
string.IsNullOrEmpty(value) ? value :
value.Length <= maxChars ? value :
value[..maxChars] + "...";
Checked as "Community wiki", be free to improve answer.
Sure, here is some sample code:
string str = "abcdefg";
if (str.Length > X){
str = str.Substring(0, X) + "...";
}
I has this problem recently. I was storing a "status" message in a nvarcharMAX DB field which is 4000 characters. However my status messages were building up and hitting the exception.
But it wasn't a simple case of truncation as an arbitrary truncation would orphan part of a status message, so I really needed to "truncate" at a consistent part of the string.
I solved the problem by converting the string to a string array, removing the first element and then restoring to a string. Here is the code ("CurrentStatus" is the string holding the data)...
if (CurrentStatus.Length >= 3750)
{
// perform some truncation to free up some space.
// Lets get the status messages into an array for processing...
// We use the period as the delimiter, then skip the first item and re-insert into an array.
string[] statusArray = CurrentStatus.Split(new string[] { "." }, StringSplitOptions.None)
.Skip(1).ToArray();
// Next we return the data to a string and replace any escaped returns with proper one.
CurrentStatus = (string.Join(".", statusArray))
.Replace("\\r\\n", Environment.NewLine);
}
Hope it helps someone out.

string manipulation check and replace with fastest method

I have some strings like below:
string num1 = "D123_1";
string num2 = "D123_2";
string num3 = "D456_11";
string num4 = "D456_22";
string num5 = "D_123_D";
string num5 = "_D_123";
I want to make a function that will do the following actions:
1- Checks if given string DOES HAVE an Underscore in it, and this underscore should be after some Numbers and Follow with some numbers: in this case 'num5' and 'num6' are invalid!
2- Replace the numbers after the last underscore with any desired string, for example I want 'num1 = "D123_1"' to be changed into 'D123_2'
So far I came with this idea but it is not working :( First I dont know how to check for criteria 1 and second the replace statement is not working:
private string CheckAndReplace(string given, string toAdd)
{
var changedString = given.Split('_');
return changedString[changedString.Length - 1] + toAdd;
}
Any help and tips will be appriciated
What you are looking for is a regular expression. This is (mostly) from the top of my head. But it should easily point you in the right direction. The regular expression works fine.
public static Regex regex = new Regex("(?<character>[a-zA-Z]+)(?<major>\\d+)_(?<minor>\\d+)",RegexOptions.CultureInvariant | RegexOptions.Compiled);
Match m = regex.Match(InputText);
if (m.Succes)
{
var newValue = String.Format("{0}{1}_{2}"m.Groups["character"].Value, m.Groups["major"].Value, m.Groups["minor"].Value);
}
In your code you split the String into an array of strings and then access the wrong index of the array, so it isn't doing what you want.
Try working with a substring instead. Find the index of the last '_' and then get the substring:
private string CheckAndReplace(string given, string toAdd) {
int index = given.LastIndexOf('_')+1;
return given.Substring(0,index) + toAdd;
}
But before that check the validity of the string (see other answers). This code fragment will break when there's no '_' in the string.
You could use a regular expression (this is not a complete implementation, only a hint):
private string CheckAndReplace(string given, string toAdd)
{
Regex regex = new Regex("([A-Z]*[0-9]+_)[0-9]+");
if (regex.IsMatch(given))
{
return string.Concat(regex.Match(given).Groups[1].Value, toAdd);
}
else
{
... do something else
}
}
Use a good regular expression implementation. .NET has standard implementation of them

Trim last character from a string

I have a string say
"Hello! world!"
I want to do a trim or a remove to take out the ! off world but not off Hello.
"Hello! world!".TrimEnd('!');
read more
EDIT:
What I've noticed in this type of questions that quite everyone suggest to remove the last char of given string. But this does not fulfill the definition of Trim method.
Trim - Removes all occurrences of
white space characters from the
beginning and end of this instance.
MSDN-Trim
Under this definition removing only last character from string is bad solution.
So if we want to "Trim last character from string" we should do something like this
Example as extension method:
public static class MyExtensions
{
public static string TrimLastCharacter(this String str)
{
if(String.IsNullOrEmpty(str)){
return str;
} else {
return str.TrimEnd(str[str.Length - 1]);
}
}
}
Note if you want to remove all characters of the same value i.e(!!!!)the method above removes all existences of '!' from the end of the string,
but if you want to remove only the last character you should use this :
else { return str.Remove(str.Length - 1); }
String withoutLast = yourString.Substring(0,(yourString.Length - 1));
if (yourString.Length > 1)
withoutLast = yourString.Substring(0, yourString.Length - 1);
or
if (yourString.Length > 1)
withoutLast = yourString.TrimEnd().Substring(0, yourString.Length - 1);
...in case you want to remove a non-whitespace character from the end.
The another example of trimming last character from a string:
string outputText = inputText.Remove(inputText.Length - 1, 1);
You can put it into an extension method and prevent it from null string, etc.
Try this:
return( (str).Remove(str.Length-1) );
In .NET 5 / C# 8:
You can write the code marked as the answer as:
public static class StringExtensions
{
public static string TrimLastCharacters(this string str) => string.IsNullOrEmpty(str) ? str : str.TrimEnd(str[^1]);
}
However, as mentioned in the answer, this removes all occurrences of that last character. If you only want to remove the last character you should instead do:
public static string RemoveLastCharacter(this string str) => string.IsNullOrEmpty(str) ? str : str[..^1];
A quick explanation for the new stuff in C# 8:
The ^ is called the "index from end operator". The .. is called the "range operator". ^1 is a shortcut for arr.length - 1. You can get all items after the first character of an array with arr[1..] or all items before the last with arr[..^1]. These are just a few quick examples. For more information, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/whats-new/csharp-8, "Indices and ranges" section.
string s1 = "Hello! world!";
string s2 = s1.Trim('!');
string helloOriginal = "Hello! World!";
string newString = helloOriginal.Substring(0,helloOriginal.LastIndexOf('!'));
string s1 = "Hello! world!"
string s2 = s1.Substring(0, s1.Length - 1);
Console.WriteLine(s1);
Console.WriteLine(s2);
Very easy and simple:
str = str.Remove( str.Length - 1 );
you could also use this:
public static class Extensions
{
public static string RemovePrefix(this string o, string prefix)
{
if (prefix == null) return o;
return !o.StartsWith(prefix) ? o : o.Remove(0, prefix.Length);
}
public static string RemoveSuffix(this string o, string suffix)
{
if(suffix == null) return o;
return !o.EndsWith(suffix) ? o : o.Remove(o.Length - suffix.Length, suffix.Length);
}
}
An example Extension class to simplify this: -
internal static class String
{
public static string TrimEndsCharacter(this string target, char character) => target?.TrimLeadingCharacter(character).TrimTrailingCharacter(character);
public static string TrimLeadingCharacter(this string target, char character) => Match(target?.Substring(0, 1), character) ? target.Remove(0,1) : target;
public static string TrimTrailingCharacter(this string target, char character) => Match(target?.Substring(target.Length - 1, 1), character) ? target.Substring(0, target.Length - 1) : target;
private static bool Match(string value, char character) => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(value) && value[0] == character;
}
Usage
"!Something!".TrimLeadingCharacter('X'); // Result '!Something!' (No Change)
"!Something!".TrimTrailingCharacter('S'); // Result '!Something!' (No Change)
"!Something!".TrimEndsCharacter('g'); // Result '!Something!' (No Change)
"!Something!".TrimLeadingCharacter('!'); // Result 'Something!' (1st Character removed)
"!Something!".TrimTrailingCharacter('!'); // Result '!Something' (Last Character removed)
"!Something!".TrimEndsCharacter('!'); // Result 'Something' (End Characters removed)
"!!Something!!".TrimLeadingCharacter('!'); // Result '!Something!!' (Only 1st instance removed)
"!!Something!!".TrimTrailingCharacter('!'); // Result '!!Something!' (Only Last instance removed)
"!!Something!!".TrimEndsCharacter('!'); // Result '!Something!' (Only End instances removed)
Slightly modified version of #Damian LeszczyƄski - Vash that will make sure that only a specific character will be removed.
public static class StringExtensions
{
public static string TrimLastCharacter(this string str, char character)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(str) || str[str.Length - 1] != character)
{
return str;
}
return str.Substring(0, str.Length - 1);
}
}
I took the path of writing an extension using the TrimEnd just because I was already using it inline and was happy with it...
i.e.:
static class Extensions
{
public static string RemoveLastChars(this String text, string suffix)
{
char[] trailingChars = suffix.ToCharArray();
if (suffix == null) return text;
return text.TrimEnd(trailingChars);
}
}
Make sure you include the namespace in your classes using the static class ;P and usage is:
string _ManagedLocationsOLAP = string.Empty;
_ManagedLocationsOLAP = _validManagedLocationIDs.RemoveLastChars(",");
If you want to remove the '!' character from a specific expression("world" in your case), then you can use this regular expression
string input = "Hello! world!";
string output = Regex.Replace(input, "(world)!", "$1", RegexOptions.Multiline | RegexOptions.Singleline);
// result: "Hello! world"
the $1 special character contains all the matching "world" expressions, and it is used to replace the original "world!" expression

BestPractice - Transform first character of a string into lower case

I'd like to have a method that transforms the first character of a string into lower case.
My approaches:
1.
public static string ReplaceFirstCharacterToLowerVariant(string name)
{
return String.Format("{0}{1}", name.First().ToString().ToLowerInvariant(), name.Substring(1));
}
2.
public static IEnumerable<char> FirstLetterToLowerCase(string value)
{
var firstChar = (byte)value.First();
return string.Format("{0}{1}", (char)(firstChar + 32), value.Substring(1));
}
What would be your approach?
I would use simple concatenation:
Char.ToLowerInvariant(name[0]) + name.Substring(1)
The first solution is not optimized because string.Format is slow and you don't need it if you have a format that will never change. It also generates an extra string to covert the letter to lowercase, which is not needed.
The approach with "+ 32" is ugly / not maintainable as it requires knowledge of ASCII character value offsets. It will also generate incorrect output with Unicode data and ASCII symbol characters.
Depending on the situation, a little defensive programming might be desirable:
public static string FirstCharacterToLower(string str)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(str) || Char.IsLower(str, 0))
return str;
return Char.ToLowerInvariant(str[0]) + str.Substring(1);
}
The if statement also prevents a new string from being built if it's not going to be changed anyway. You might want to have the method fail on null input instead, and throw an ArgumentNullException.
As people have mentioned, using String.Format for this is overkill.
Just in case it helps anybody who happens to stumble across this answer.
I think this would be best as an extension method, then you can call it with yourString.FirstCharacterToLower();
public static class StringExtensions
{
public static string FirstCharacterToLower(this string str)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(str) || Char.IsLower(str, 0))
{
return str;
}
return Char.ToLowerInvariant(str[0]) + str.Substring(1);
}
}
The fastest solution I know without abusing c#:
public static string LowerCaseFirstLetter(string value)
{
if (value?.Length > 0)
{
var letters = value.ToCharArray();
letters[0] = char.ToLowerInvariant(letters[0]);
return new string(letters);
}
return value;
}
Mine is
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty (val) && val.Length > 0)
{
return val[0].ToString().ToLowerInvariant() + val.Remove (0,1);
}
I like the accepted answer, but beside checking string.IsNullOrEmpty I would also check if Char.IsLower(name[1]) in case you are dealing with abbreviation. E.g. you would not want "AIDS" to become "aIDS".
If you care about performance I would go with
public static string FirstCharToLower(this string str)
=> string.Create(str.Length, str, (output, input) =>
{
input.CopyTo(output);
output[0] = char.ToLowerInvariant(input[0]);
});
I did some quick benchmarking and it seems to be at least twice as fast as the fastest solution posted here and 3.5 times faster than the worst one across multiple input lengths.
There is no input checking as it should be the responsibility of the caller. Allowing you to prepare your data in advance and do fast bulk processing not being slowed down by having branches in your hot path if you ever need it.
With range operator C# 8.0 or above you can do this:
Char.ToLowerInvariant(name[0]) + name[1..];
Combined a few and made it a chainable extension. Added short-circuit on whitespace and non-letter.
public static string FirstLower(this string input) =>
(!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(input) && input.Length > 0
&& char.IsLetter(input[0]) && !char.IsLower(input[0]))
? input[0].ToString().ToLowerInvariant() + input.Remove(0, 1) : input;
This is a little extension method using latest syntax and correct validations
public static class StringExtensions
{
public static string FirstCharToLower(this string input)
{
switch (input)
{
case null: throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(input));
case "": throw new ArgumentException($"{nameof(input)} cannot be empty", nameof(input));
default: return input.First().ToString().ToLower() + input.Substring(1);
}
}
}
Use This:
string newName= name[0].ToString().ToLower() + name.Substring(1);
If you don't want to reference your string twice in your expression you could do this using System.Linq.
new string("Hello World".Select((c, i) => i == 0 ? char.ToLower(c) : c).ToArray())
That way if your string comes from a function, you don't have to store the result of that function.
new string(Console.ReadLine().Select((c, i) => i == 0 ? char.ToLower(c) : c).ToArray())
It is better to use String.Concat than String.Format if you know that format is not change data, and just concatenation is desired.

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