Truncating

Truncating refers to the action of shortening something by cutting off a part or portion, effectively reducing its size, length, or amount. This can apply to text, data, numbers, or physical objects. The purpose of truncating is often to simplify, reduce redundancy, or fit within size constraints, but it always involves a loss of information or completeness. The extent of truncation depends on the desired result, and careful consideration is needed to avoid compromising the intended meaning or functionality. The process can be applied in various contexts from computer programming to literature.

Truncating meaning with examples

• In database management, truncating a numerical field to its integer value (removing decimal places) can save storage space, though at the cost of precision. We need to truncate the long list of results to show the top 10 only, to fit this section. The decision was made to truncate any entry exceeding 100 characters.
• When displaying long text strings on a website, truncating them with an ellipsis (...) is a common practice to fit them within a limited space, and this truncation is a form of optimization. The software must truncate any entries exceeding 500 characters, so as to be compatible with our system. It is critical to truncate excessively long URL’s to keep readability.
• During data analysis, truncating values outside a specified range can help remove outliers and focus on the core data distribution. To fit the design, it's necessary to truncate this paragraph to three sentences. After removing all the extra details, we are left with truncated summaries to read.
• In computer programming, truncating a string involves removing characters from either end, which can be helpful for formatting or data standardization. Our code will automatically truncate the descriptions when they are over the character limit. They had to truncate the long report because it went over the time we set.
• When machining a piece of metal, truncating it means to cut off a portion to achieve a desired shape or size. The engineer made a mistake, so we must truncate the flawed parts. Please truncate the excess length from the rope.