How to get first character from words in flutter dart? - dart

Question

Let's say we have a name set to "Ben Bright". I want to output to the user "BB", with the first characters of each word. I tried with the split() method, but I failed to do it with dart.
String getInitials(bank_account_name) {
List<String> names = bank_account_name.split(" ");
String initials;
for (var i = 0; i < names.length; i++) {
initials = '${names[i]}';
}
return initials;
}

Answer 1

Allow me to give a shorter solution than the other mentioned:
void main() {
print(getInitials('')); //
print(getInitials('Ben')); // B
print(getInitials('Ben ')); // B
print(getInitials('Ben Bright')); // BB
print(getInitials('Ben Bright Big')); // BB
}
String getInitials(String bank_account_name) => bank_account_name.isNotEmpty
? bank_account_name.trim().split(' ').map((l) => l[0]).take(2).join()
: '';
The take(2) part ensures we only take up to two letters.
EDIT (7th October 2021):
Or if we must be able to handle multiple spaces between the words we can do (thanks #StackUnderflow for notice):
void main() {
print(getInitials('')); //
print(getInitials('Ben')); // B
print(getInitials('Ben ')); // B
print(getInitials('Ben Bright')); // BB
print(getInitials('Ben Bright Big')); // BB
print(getInitials('Ben Bright Big')); // BB
}
String getInitials(String bankAccountName) => bankAccountName.isNotEmpty
? bankAccountName.trim().split(RegExp(' +')).map((s) => s[0]).take(2).join()
: '';
Notice that split takes a RegExp(' +') compared to the original solution.

Answer 2

Just a slight modification since you only need the first letters
String getInitials(bank_account_name) {
List<String> names = bank_account_name.split(" ");
String initials = "";
int numWords = 2;
if(numWords < names.length) {
numWords = names.length;
}
for(var i = 0; i < numWords; i++){
initials += '${names[i][0]}';
}
return initials;
}
Edit:
You can set the value of num_words to print the intials of those many words.
If the bank_account_name is a 0 letter word, then return an empty string
If the bank_account_name contains lesser words than num_words, print the initials of all the words in bank_account_name.

Answer 3

var string = 'William Henry Gates';
var output = getInitials(string: string, limitTo: 1); // W
var output = getInitials(string: string, limitTo: 2); // WH
var output = getInitials(string: string); // WHG
String getInitials({String string, int limitTo}) {
var buffer = StringBuffer();
var split = string.split(' ');
for (var i = 0 ; i < (limitTo ?? split.length); i ++) {
buffer.write(split[i][0]);
}
return buffer.toString();
}

Answer 4

A more general solution can be found below. It takes care of empty strings, single word strings and situations where anticipated word count is less than actual word count:
static String getInitials(String string, {int limitTo}) {
var buffer = StringBuffer();
var wordList = string.trim().split(' ');
if (string.isEmpty)
return string;
// Take first character if string is a single word
if (wordList.length <= 1)
return string.characters.first;
/// Fallback to actual word count if
/// expected word count is greater
if (limitTo != null && limitTo > wordList.length) {
for (var i = 0; i < wordList.length; i++) {
buffer.write(wordList[i][0]);
}
return buffer.toString();
}
// Handle all other cases
for (var i = 0; i < (limitTo ?? wordList.length); i++) {
buffer.write(wordList[i][0]);
}
return buffer.toString();
}
Edit:
I actually use this for CircleAvatars with no images in my projects.

Answer 5

I used CopsOnRoad solution but I was getting the following error.
RangeError (index): Invalid value: Only valid value is 0: 1
So I modified it to
String getInitials(String string, [int limitTo = 2]) {
if (string == null || string.isEmpty) {
return '';
}
var buffer = StringBuffer();
var split = string.split(' ');
//For one word
if (split.length == 1) {
return string.substring(0, 1);
}
for (var i = 0; i < (limitTo ?? split.length); i++) {
buffer.write(split[i][0]);
}
return buffer.toString();
}
Here are some tests in case you are interested
void main() {
group('getInitials', () {
test('should process one later word name correctly', () {
final result = getInitials('J');
expect(result, 'J');
});
test('should process one word name correctly', () {
final result = getInitials('John');
expect(result, 'J');
});
test('should process two word name correctly', () {
final result = getInitials('John Mamba');
expect(result, 'JM');
});
test('should process more than two word name correctly', () {
final result = getInitials('John Mamba Kanzu');
expect(result, 'JM');
});
test('should return empty string when name is null', () {
final result = getInitials(null);
expect(result, '');
});
test('should return empty string when name is empty', () {
final result = getInitials('');
expect(result, '');
});
});
}

Answer 6

String getInitials(full_name) {
List<String> names = full_name.split(" ");
print("org::: $full_name");
print("list ::: $names");
print("Substring ::: ${names[0].substring(0,1)}");
String initials = "";
int numWords = 2;
numWords = names.length;
for(var i = 0; i < numWords; i++)
{
initials += '${names[i].substring(0,1)}';
print("the initials are $initials");
}
return initials;
}

Answer 7

On Nov, 2022
Working solution using Regex:
String getInitials(String string) => string.isNotEmpty
? string.trim().split(RegExp(' +')).map((s) => s[0]).join()
: '' ;