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Shorten a text string

Submitted by Totally PHP, 9th February 2004

Description

Function to shorten / truncate a string of text into a specific number of characters and add three dots (...) to the end. This will also round the text to the nearest whole word instead of cutting off part way through a word.

The code

<?php



/**

 * Add this to your page:

 * <?php

 * include "shorten_a_text_string.php";

 * echo ShortenText($text);

 * ?>

 * where $text is the text you want to shorten.

 * 

 * Example

 * Test it using this in a PHP page:

 * <?php

 * include "shortentext.php";

 * $text = "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.";

 * echo ShortenText($text);

 * ?>

 */



    function ShortenText($text) {



        // Change to the number of characters you want to display

        $chars = 25;



        $text = $text." ";

        $text = substr($text,0,$chars);

        $text = substr($text,0,strrpos($text,' '));

        $text = $text."...";



        return $text;



    }



?> 

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