### Name: abbreviate
### Title: Abbreviate Strings
### Aliases: abbreviate
### Keywords: character

### ** Examples

x <- c("abcd", "efgh", "abce")
abbreviate(x, 2)
abbreviate(x, 2, strict=TRUE)# >> 1st and 3rd are == "ab"

(st.abb <- abbreviate(state.name, 2))
table(nchar(st.abb))# out of 50, 3 need 4 letters :
as <- abbreviate(state.name, 3, strict=TRUE)
as[which(as == "Mss")]
## Don't show: 
stopifnot(which(as == "Mss") == c(21,24,25))
## End Don't show
## method="both.sides" helps:  no 4-letters, and only 4 3-letters:
st.ab2 <- abbreviate(state.name, 2, method="both")
table(nchar(st.ab2))
## Compare the two methods:
cbind(st.abb, st.ab2)