question: private void removeCharacters ( ConstantValue constantValue ) { assert ( constantValue . getValue ( ) instanceof String ) ; String oldString = ( String ) constantValue . getValue ( ) ; for ( int i = oldString . length ( ) - 1 ; i >= 0 ; i -- ) { String newString = oldString . substring ( 0 , i ) + oldString . substring ( i + 1 ) ; constantValue . setValue ( newString ) ; if ( objective . isNotWorse ( ) ) { oldString = ( String ) constantValue . getValue ( ) ; } else { constantValue . setValue ( oldString ) ; } } }
target:  Shorten the string as much as possible, until the objective value is affected.