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Nice, intelligent truncation of text.

Project description

Nice, intelligent truncation of text. Current version on PyPI Supported Python versions

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Nicely truncate text

Intelligent truncation of text means that truncation does not take place inside a word but only between words. So the required length is only an approximation. The result text might be a bit longer than the required length:

>>> from icemac.truncatetext import truncate
>>> 'I was here.'[:3]
'I w'
>>> truncate('I was here.', 3)
'I was ...'

What can get truncated?

Only instances of basestring (str on Python 3) can be truncated:

>>> truncate(3, 3)
Traceback (most recent call last):
ValueError: 3 is no instance of basestring or None
>>> print(truncate(u'Lorem ipsum', 5))
Lorem ...

None is handled nicely:

>>> truncate(None, 4)

What is returned?

Always at least one word is returned even when it is longer than the required length:

>>> truncate('Lorem ipsum', 1)
'Lorem ...'

If the text contains only of one word which is longer than the desired length it is returned without an ellipsis:

>>> truncate('The-really-long-word', 5)

If the text is shorter than the desired length it is returned without the ellipsis, too:

>>> truncate('Lorem ipsum', 11)
'Lorem ipsum'

Where gets the text truncated?

Truncation also takes place at tabs and linebreaks:

>>> truncate("I was here.\nNow I'm away", 11)
'I was here. ...'
>>> truncate("I was here.\rNow I'm away", 12)
'I was here.\rNow ...'
>>> truncate("I was here.\tNow I'm away", 11)
'I was here. ...'

I do not want ... as ellipsis.

truncate takes an optional argument which defines the ellipsis string:

>>> print(truncate(u'Lorem ipsum', 5, ellipsis=u':::'))
Lorem :::


1.1.1 (2018-11-16)

  • Move repository to Github.

1.1 (2018-11-15)

  • Add support for Python 3.7.

1.0.post1 (2017-06-22)

  • Fix the description so PyPI accepts it.

1.0 (2017-05-13)

  • Add support for Python 3.4 up to 3.6, PyPy2 and PyPy3.
  • Drop support for Python 2.5 and 2.6.
  • Change license from ZPL to MIT.

0.3 (2012-11-13)

  • Moved sources to
  • Added Travis-CI.
  • Dropped official support for Python 2.3 and Python 2.4. (Although these rather old Python versions still might be used with this release.)

0.2.1 (2011-07-28)

  • Updated categories: Python 2.7 is supported, too.

0.2 (2009-09-26)

  • Added ability pass a string used as ellipsis string.

0.1 (2009-01-31)

  • Initial public release.


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