How to get the first five character of a String

Question

I have read this question to get first char of the string. Is there a way to get the first n number of characters from a string in C#?

Answer 1

You can use Enumerable.Take like:

char[] array = yourStringVariable.Take(5).ToArray();

Or you can use String.Substring.

string str = yourStringVariable.Substring(0,5);

Remember that String.Substring could throw an exception in case of string's length less than the characters required.

If you want to get the result back in string then you can use:

• Using String Constructor and LINQ's Take

  string firstFivChar = new string(yourStringVariable.Take(5).ToArray());
  

The plus with the approach is not checking for length before hand.

• The other way is to use String.Substring with error checking

like:

string firstFivCharWithSubString = 
    !String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(yourStringVariable) && yourStringVariable.Length >= 5
    ? yourStringVariable.Substring(0, 5)
    : yourStringVariable;

Answer 2

Please try:

yourString.Substring(0, 5);

Check C# Substring, String.Substring Method

Answer 3

You can use Substring(int startIndex, int length)

string result = str.Substring(0,5);

The substring starts at a specified character position and has a specified length. This method does not modify the value of the current instance. Instead, it returns a new string with length characters starting from the startIndex position in the current string, MSDN

What if the source string is less then five characters? You will get exception by using above method. We can put condition to check if the number of characters in string are more then 5 then get first five through Substring. Note I have assigned source string to firstFiveChar variable. The firstFiveChar not change if characters are less then 5, so else part is not required.

string firstFiveChar = str;
If(!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(yourStringVariable) && yourStringVariable.Length >= 5)
      firstFiveChar = yourStringVariable.Substring(0, 5);

Answer 4

No one mentioned how to make proper checks when using Substring(), so I wanted to contribute about that.

If you don't want to use Linq and go with Substring(), you have to make sure that your string is bigger than the second parameter (length) of Substring() function.

Let's say you need the first 5 characters. You should get them with proper check, like this:

string title = "love"; // 15 characters
var firstFiveChars = title.Length <= 5 ? title : title.Substring(0, 5);

// firstFiveChars: "love" (4 characters)

Without this check, Substring() function would throw an exception because it'd iterate through letters that aren't there.

I think you get the idea...

Answer 5

The problem with .Substring(,) is, that you need to be sure that the given string has at least the length of the asked number of characters, otherwise an ArgumentOutOfRangeException will be thrown.

Solution 1 (using 'Substring'):

var firstFive = stringValue != null && stringValue.Length > 5 ? 
                   stringValue.Substring(0, 5) :
                   stringValue;

The drawback of using .Substring( is that you'll need to check the length of the given string.

Solution 2 (using 'Take'):

var firstFive = stringValue != null ? 
                    string.Join("", stringValue.Take(5)) : 
                    null;

Using 'Take' will prevent that you need to check the length of the given string.

Answer 6

Just a heads up there is a new way to do this in C# 8.0: Range operators

Microsoft Docs

Or as I like to call em, Pandas slices.

Old way:

string newString = oldstring.Substring(0, 5);

New way:

string newString = oldstring[..5];

Which at first glance appears like a pretty bad tradeoff of some readability for shorter code but the new feature gives you

1. a standard syntax for slicing arrays (and therefore strings)

2. cool stuff like this:

   var slice1 = list[2..^3]; // list[Range.Create(2, Index.CreateFromEnd(3))]

   var slice2 = list[..^3]; // list[Range.ToEnd(Index.CreateFromEnd(3))]

   var slice3 = list[2..]; // list[Range.FromStart(2)]

   var slice4 = list[..]; // list[Range.All]

Answer 7

Use the PadRight function to prevent the string from being too short, grab what you need then trim the spaces from the end all in one statement.

strSomeString = strSomeString.PadRight(50).Substring(0,50).TrimEnd();

Answer 8

I don't know why anybody mentioned this. But it's the shortest and simplest way to achieve this.

string str = yourString.Remove(n);

n - number of characters that you need

Example

var zz = "7814148471";
Console.WriteLine(zz.Remove(5));
//result - 78141

Answer 9

Append five whitespace characters then cut off the first five and trim the result. The number of spaces you append should match the number you are cutting. Be sure to include the parenthesis before .Substring(0,X) or you'll append nothing.

string str = (yourStringVariable + "    ").Substring(0,5).Trim();

With this technique you won't have to worry about the ArgumentOutOfRangeException mentioned in other answers.

Answer 10

string str = "GoodMorning"

string strModified = str.Substring(0,5);

Answer 11

This is how you do it in 2020:

var s = "ABCDEFGH";
var first5 = s.AsSpan(0, 5);

A Span<T> points directly to the memory of the string, avoiding allocating a temporary string. Of course, any subsequent method asking for a string requires a conversion:

Console.WriteLine(first5.ToString());

Though, these days many .NET APIs allow for spans. Stick to them if possible!

Note: If targeting .NET Framework add a reference to the System.Memory package, but don't expect the same superb performance.

Answer 12

In C# 8.0 you can get the first five characters of a string like so

string str = data[0..5];

Here is some more information about Indices And Ranges

Answer 13

To get the first n number of characters from a string in C#

String yourstring="Some Text";  
String first_n_Number_of_Characters=yourstring.Substring(0,n);

Answer 14

Below is an extension method that checks if a string is bigger than what was needed and shortens the string to the defined max amount of chars and appends '...'.

public static class StringExtensions
{
    public static string Ellipsis(this string s, int charsToDisplay)
    {
        if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(s))
            return s.Length <= charsToDisplay ? s : new string(s.Take(charsToDisplay).ToArray()) + "...";
        return String.Empty;
    }
}

Answer 15

Kindly try this code when str is less than 5.

string strModified = str.Substring(0,str.Length>5?5:str.Length);

Answer 16

In C# 8 you can use Range Operators. In order to avoid the exception if your original string is shorter than the desired length, you can use Math.Min:

string newString = oldstring[..Math.Min(oldstring.Length, 5)];

Of course, if you know that the original string is longer, you can optimize:

string newString = oldstring[..5];

Answer 17

I use:

var firstFive = stringValue?.Substring(0, stringValue.Length >= 5 ? 5 : customAlias.Length);

or alternative if you want to check for Whitespace too (instead of only Null):

var firstFive = !String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(stringValue) && stringValue.Length >= 5 ? stringValue.Substring(0, 5) : stringValue

Answer 18

Or you could use String.ToCharArray().
It takes int startindex and and int length as parameters and returns a char[]

new string(stringValue.ToCharArray(0,5))

You would still need to make sure the string has the proper length, otherwise it will throw a ArgumentOutOfRangeException

Answer 19

This is what I am using, it has no problem with string less than required characters

private string TakeFirstCharacters(string input, int characterAmount)
{
    return input?.Substring(0, Math.Min(input.Length, characterAmount));
}

Answer 20

If we want only first 5 characters from any field, then this can be achieved by Left Attribute

Vessel = f.Vessel !=null ? f.Vessel.Left(5) : ""

Answer 21

Try below code

 string Name = "Abhishek";
 string firstfour = Name.Substring(0, 4);
 Response.Write(firstfour);

Answer 22

I have tried the above answers and the best i think is this one

@item.First_Name.Substring(0,1)

In this i could get the first letter of the string