String Manipulation in Salesforce

Salesforce provide set of methods for String manipulation. This article explains usage of each function with examples.

1. Truncate strings with ellipses.
   abbreviate(maxWidth) returns a trimmed version of the String, of the specified length and with ellipses (…) appended if the current String is longer than the specified length; otherwise, returns the original String without ellipses.

   'Test Text Field'.abbreviate(8); //Test ...

   'Test Text Field'.abbreviate(8); //Test ...

2. Convert to title case (Capitalize first letter)
   capitalize() capitalize first letter of the string.

   'test text field'.abbreviate(8); //Test text field

   'test text field'.abbreviate(8); //Test text field

3. Pad with Spaces (front & back)
   center(size) pads string with spaces in front and back while keeping String in the center.

   'test'.center(10); // test

   'test'.center(10); // test

4. Pad with Text (front & back)
   center(size, paddingString) pads string with specified text in front and back while keeping String in the center.

   'test'.center(10,'#'); //###test###

   'test'.center(10,'#'); //###test###

5. Remove leading and trailing spaces
   trim() removes leading and trailing white spaces from the string.

   ' test '.trim(); //test

   ' test '.trim(); //test

6. Escape characters.
   • escapeCsv() – columns in CSV string enclosed with double quotes.
   • escapeHtml3(), escapeHtml4() – escapes html characters in String.
   • escapeJava() – escapes characters in String with Java rules. Characters escaped include quotes and control characters, such as tab, backslash, and carriage return characters.
   • escapeSingleQuotes(stringToEscape) – escapes single quotes in String with backslash.
   • escapeUnicode() – escapes Unicode characters.
   • escapeXml() – escapes Xml tags in String.
7. Convert first letter to lowercase
   uncapitalize() returns the String with the first letter in lowercase.

   'Test tTest Test'.uncapitalize(); //test tTest Test

   'Test tTest Test'.uncapitalize(); //test tTest Test

8. Convert to uppercase
   toUpperCase() Converts all of the characters in the String to uppercase using the rules of the default (English US) locale.

   'Test'.toUpperCase(); //TEST

   'Test'.toUpperCase(); //TEST

9. Convert to lowercase
   toUpperCase() Converts all of the characters in the String to uppercase using the rules of the default (English US) locale.

   'TesT'.toLowerCase(); //test

   'TesT'.toLowerCase(); //test

10. Remove HTML tags
    stripHtmlTags() Removes all html tags from the String.