Example of a File of Functions to Pre-Load at Startup

Here is a portion of my file of functions that I load on startup so they're available in every session. See also Load Functions at Startup Using Initialization Files.

Functions to Pre-Load

String Processing

Cleaners

trimWhiteSpace::usage="trimWhiteSpace is a simple stringtrim function that does a better job than StringTrim since it removes all WhiteSpaceCharacters from beginning, end or middle of Strings. It is Listable and is intended to Map over all fields in all records where all fields are Strings, no matter if they are wrapped in Lists at any level."

Clear@trimWhiteSpace;

SetAttributes[trimWhiteSpace,Listable];

trimWhiteSpace@stringFile_:=StringReplace[stringFile,WhitespaceCharacter->""];

cleanseText::usage="cleanseText is a moderately thorough stringtrim function. The regular expression removes whitespace characters from the beginning and end of the string, including non-breaking spaces. StringReplace removes apostrophes and commas. It is Listable and intended to automatically Map over all fields in all records where all fields are Strings, no matter if they are wrapped in Lists at any level. These rules should be expanded to include more data cleansing functions as needed."

Clear@cleanseText;

SetAttributes[cleanseText,Listable];

cleanseText@text_String:=StringReplace[text,RegularExpression["^(\\s)*|(\\s)*$"]->""]//StringReplace[#,{"'"->"",WhitespaceCharacter->" ","("|")"->""}]&;

Web Page Functions

Make a URL from a String

makeURL::usage="makeURL takes a String to use as the prefix of the URL, cleans it up (removes whitespace and non-breaking spaces (which are often invisible), puts the String in lower case, replaces single spaces with hyphens and finally appends '.html'. Example: 'My Home Page' -> my-home-page.html".

Clear@makeURL;

SetAttributes[makeURL,Listable];

makeURL@urlName_String:=ToLowerCase@cleanseText@urlName//StringReplace[#,Whitespace->"-"]&//StringReplace[#,"---"->"-"]&//FileNameJoin[{#<>".html"}]&;