Java substring: 'string index out of range'

java substring indexoutofboundsexception
phill picture phill · Jun 5, 2009 · Viewed 299.3k times · Source

I'm guessing I'm getting this error because the string is trying to substring a null value. But wouldn't the ".length() > 0" part eliminate that issue?

Here is the Java snippet:

if (itemdescription.length() > 0) {
    pstmt2.setString(3, itemdescription.substring(0,38));
} 
else { 
    pstmt2.setString(3, "_");
}

I got this error: 

 java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 38
    at java.lang.String.substring(Unknown Source)
    at MASInsert2.itemimport(MASInsert2.java:192)
    at MASInsert2.processRequest(MASInsert2.java:125)
    at MASInsert2.doGet(MASInsert2.java:219)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:627)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:269)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:188)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:213)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:172)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:117)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:108)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:174)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProcessor.process(Http11AprProcessor.java:835)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11AprProtocol.java:640)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.AprEndpoint$Worker.run(AprEndpoint.java:1286)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Answer

linqu picture linqu · Mar 12, 2014

It is a pity that substring is not implemented in a way that handles short strings – like in other languages e.g. Python.

Ok, we cannot change that and have to consider this edge case every time we use substr, instead of if-else clauses I would go for this shorter variant:

myText.substring(0, Math.min(6, myText.length()))

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