WhiteSpace Form TextBoxes

Question

Hi,

I am repopulating a form field that a user previously filled out with Sessions in HTTP. I am grabbing the fields from the form through a servlet:

//On servlet String polyNum = request.getParameter("policyNum") session.setAttribute("policyNum", polyNum);

//On JSP * Policy #: ">

The Problem: When I run my JSP page, I get a leading whitespace in the textboxes of the form. Therefore, anytime I submit the form, whitespace is inserted into the database as well.

Any ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Take a look at the .trim() method in the String class:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/String.html#trim()

"Returns a copy of the string, with leading and trailing whitespace omitted."

Answer 2

You can trim it like this:

String polyNum = request.getParameter("policyNum");
polyNum = polyNum == null ? null : polyNum.trim();
session.setAttribute("policyNum", polyNum  );

and if your jsp looks like

<input type ="text" value="
<%= session.getAttribute( "policyNum" ); %>
"/>

you will get whitespace.

Also you don't show where you are inputting into the database.

Answer 3

The Apache Commons StringUtils library is good for trimming as it handles nulls.

So

String polyNum = request.getParameter("policyNum");
polyNum = polyNum == null ? null : polyNum.trim();

Can become

String polyNum = StingUtils.stripToEmpty(request.getParameter("policyNum"));

Answer 4

It turned out that my scriplets within my jsp pages were placed syntanically wrong. I didn't need to trim whitespace after all. My forms are working fine now.

Your solution about the Apache library is interesting Damo. I appreciate your feedback.