I want to take first character from firstName and lastName. Also firstName and lastName may be null....

# android

[Vivek Modi]

I want to take first character from firstName and lastName. Also firstName and lastName may be null. I want to ask is there better way to approach this? firstName : Vivek or Dr. Vivek lastName Modi

private fun getInitials(firstName: String?, lastName: String?): String {
    var initials = ""
    if (firstName != null && firstName.isNotEmpty()) {
        initials += firstName.take(1)
    }
    if (lastName != null && lastName.isNotEmpty()) {
        initials += lastName.take(1)
    }
    return initials
}

For example Vivek Modi output VM but when i enter Dr. Vivek Modi i want VM

[Grégory Lureau]

I'd make the title (Dr.) as an independent string too (it's not part of the firstname nor the lastname), and not even required to pass this title in this method.
I suppose you can also reduce the code (not fully tested):

private fun getInitials(firstName: String?, lastName: String?) =

(firstName ?: "").take(1) + (lastName ?: "").take(1)

[wbertan]

Maybe something like this?

@Test
    fun asas() {
        fun getInitials(firstName: String?, lastName: String?): String {
            val first = firstName?.substringAfter(".")?.trim()?.getOrNull(0) ?: ""
            val second = lastName?.trim()?.getOrNull(0) ?: ""
            return "$first$second"
        }
        assertEquals("VM", getInitials("Vivek", "Modi"))
        assertEquals("V", getInitials("Vivek", null))
        assertEquals("V", getInitials("Vivek", ""))
        assertEquals("V", getInitials("Vivek", " "))
        assertEquals("VM", getInitials("Dr. Vivek", "Modi"))
        assertEquals("V", getInitials("Dr. Vivek", null))
        assertEquals("V", getInitials("Dr. Vivek", ""))
        assertEquals("V", getInitials("Dr. Vivek", " "))
        assertEquals("M", getInitials(null, "Modi"))
        assertEquals("M", getInitials("", "Modi"))
        assertEquals("M", getInitials(" ", "Modi"))
    }

It is assuming all person’s title would have a . like Mr. for example.

[Grégory Lureau]

To detect the title, I'd use a list of all variation of titles you want to handle ("Pr.", "Pr", "Dr.", ...)

[Grégory Lureau]

val titles = listOf("Dr", "Dr.", ...)
fun extractTitle(firstName: String):String {
titles.forEach { if (firstName.startsWith(it) return@extractTitle it }
return ""
}
Just to have a draft to start from

[Vivek Modi]

@Grégory Lureau thanks i'll try this

[Grégory Lureau]

Also not sure it's really related to Android 😄 maybe more getting-started for basic kotlin usage.

[Vivek Modi]

no worries it's related to android + kotlin

[Grégory Lureau]

You're in #android room here, it's not Android related.

[Vivek Modi]

it's related both

[Adam Powell]

Useful reading on this topic https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/