Add ... if string is too long PHP

Question

I have a description field in my MySQL database, and I access the database on two different pages, one page I display the whole field, but on the other, I just want to display the first 50 characters. If the string in the description field is less than 50 characters, then it won't show ... , but if it isn't, I will show ... after the first 50 characters.

Example (Full string):

Hello, this is the first example, where I am going to have a string that is over 50 characters and is super long, I don't know how long maybe around 1000 characters. Anyway this should be over 50 characters now ...

Exmaple 2 (first 50 characters):

Hello, this is the first example, where I am going ...

Answer 1

The PHP way of doing this is simple:

$out = strlen($in) > 50 ? substr($in,0,50)."..." : $in;

But you can achieve a much nicer effect with this CSS:

.ellipsis {
    overflow: hidden;
    white-space: nowrap;
    text-overflow: ellipsis;
}

Now, assuming the element has a fixed width, the browser will automatically break off and add the ... for you.

Answer 2

You can achieve the desired trim in this way too:

mb_strimwidth("Hello World", 0, 10, "...");

Where:

• Hello World: the string to trim.
• 0: number of characters from the beginning of the string.
• 10: the length of the trimmed string.
• ...: an added string at the end of the trimmed string.

This will return Hello W....

Notice that 10 is the length of the truncated string + the added string!

Documentation: http://php.net/manual/en/function.mb-strimwidth.php

To avoid truncating words:

In case of presenting text excerpts, probably truncating a word should be avoided. If there is no hard requirement on the length of the truncated text, apart from wordwrap() mentioned here, one can use the following to truncate and prevent cutting the last word as well.

$text = "Knowledge is a natural right of every human being of which no one
has the right to deprive him or her under any pretext, except in a case where a
person does something which deprives him or her of that right. It is mere
stupidity to leave its benefits to certain individuals and teams who monopolize
these while the masses provide the facilities and pay the expenses for the
establishment of public sports.";

// we don't want new lines in our preview
$text_only_spaces = preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $text);

// truncates the text
$text_truncated = mb_substr($text_only_spaces, 0, mb_strpos($text_only_spaces, " ", 50));

// prevents last word truncation
$preview = trim(mb_substr($text_truncated, 0, mb_strrpos($text_truncated, " ")));

In this case, $preview will be "Knowledge is a natural right of every human being".

Live code example: http://sandbox.onlinephpfunctions.com/code/25484a8b687d1f5ad93f62082b6379662a6b4713

Answer 3

Use wordwrap() to truncate the string without breaking words if the string is longer than 50 characters, and just add ... at the end:

$str = $input;
if( strlen( $input) > 50) {
    $str = explode( "\n", wordwrap( $input, 50));
    $str = $str[0] . '...';
}

echo $str;

Otherwise, using solutions that do substr( $input, 0, 50); will break words.

Answer 4

if (strlen($string) <=50) {
  echo $string;
} else {
  echo substr($string, 0, 50) . '...';
}

Answer 5

<?php
function truncate($string, $length, $stopanywhere=false) {
    //truncates a string to a certain char length, stopping on a word if not specified otherwise.
    if (strlen($string) > $length) {
        //limit hit!
        $string = substr($string,0,($length -3));
        if ($stopanywhere) {
            //stop anywhere
            $string .= '...';
        } else{
            //stop on a word.
            $string = substr($string,0,strrpos($string,' ')).'...';
        }
    }
    return $string;
}
?>

I use the above code snippet many-a-times..

Answer 6

I use this solution on my website. If $str is shorter, than $max, it will remain unchanged. If $str has no spaces among first $max characters, it will be brutally cut at $max position. Otherwise 3 dots will be added after the last whole word.

function short_str($str, $max = 50) {
    $str = trim($str);
    if (strlen($str) > $max) {
        $s_pos = strpos($str, ' ');
        $cut = $s_pos === false || $s_pos > $max;
        $str = wordwrap($str, $max, ';;', $cut);
        $str = explode(';;', $str);
        $str = $str[0] . '...';
    }
    return $str;
}

Answer 7

$string = "Hello, this is the first example, where I am going to have a string that is over 50 characters and is super long, I don't know how long maybe around 1000 characters. Anyway this should be over 50 characters know...";

if(strlen($string) >= 50)
{
    echo substr($string, 50); //prints everything after 50th character
    echo substr($string, 0, 50); //prints everything before 50th character
}

Answer 8

This will return a given string with ellipsis based on WORD count instead of characters:

<?php
/**
*    Return an elipsis given a string and a number of words
*/
function elipsis ($text, $words = 30) {
    // Check if string has more than X words
    if (str_word_count($text) > $words) {

        // Extract first X words from string
        preg_match("/(?:[^\s,\.;\?\!]+(?:[\s,\.;\?\!]+|$)){0,$words}/", $text, $matches);
        $text = trim($matches[0]);

        // Let's check if it ends in a comma or a dot.
        if (substr($text, -1) == ',') {
            // If it's a comma, let's remove it and add a ellipsis
            $text = rtrim($text, ',');
            $text .= '...';
        } else if (substr($text, -1) == '.') {
            // If it's a dot, let's remove it and add a ellipsis (optional)
            $text = rtrim($text, '.');
            $text .= '...';
        } else {
            // Doesn't end in dot or comma, just adding ellipsis here
            $text .= '...';
        }
    }
    // Returns "ellipsed" text, or just the string, if it's less than X words wide.
    return $text;
}

$description = 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Quibusdam ut placeat consequuntur pariatur iure eum ducimus quasi perferendis, laborum obcaecati iusto ullam expedita excepturi debitis nisi deserunt fugiat velit assumenda. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Incidunt, blanditiis nostrum. Nostrum cumque non rerum ducimus voluptas officia tempore modi, nulla nisi illum, voluptates dolor sapiente ut iusto earum. Esse? Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. A eligendi perspiciatis natus autem. Necessitatibus eligendi doloribus corporis quia, quas laboriosam. Beatae repellat dolor alias. Perferendis, distinctio, laudantium? Dolorum, veniam, amet!';

echo elipsis($description, 30);
?>

Answer 9

<?php
$string = 'This is your string';

if( strlen( $string ) > 50 ) {
   $string = substr( $string, 0, 50 ) . '...';
}

That's it.

Answer 10

// this method will return the break string without breaking word
$string = "A brown fox jump over the lazy dog";
$len_required= 10;
// user strip_tags($string) if string contain html character
if(strlen($string) > 10)
{
 $break_str = explode( "\n", wordwrap( $string , $len_required));
 $new_str =$break_str[0] . '...';
}
// other method is use substr 

Answer 11

You can use str_split() for this

$str = "Hello, this is the first example, where I am going to have a string that is over 50 characters and is super long, I don't know how long maybe around 1000 characters. Anyway this should be over 50 characters know...";
$split = str_split($str, 50);
$final = $split[0] . "...";
echo $final;

Answer 12

For some of you who uses Yii2 there is a method under the hood yii\helpers\StringHelper::truncate().

Example of usage:

$sting = "stringToTruncate";
$truncatedString = \yii\helpers\StringHelper::truncate($string, 6, '...');
echo $truncatedString; // result: "string..."

Here is the doc: https://www.yiiframework.com/doc/api/2.0/yii-helpers-basestringhelper#truncate()-detail