How can I truncate a string in php without cutting off words?

Question

Im looking for a soluting for the followting case. I have a string

"This is a long string of words"

I want to use only the first few words, but if I just cut everything after 20th character, it will look like this:

"This is a long strin"

I can grab first 3 words

implode(' ', array_slice(explode(' ', "This is a long string of words"), 0, 3));

But in some cases, 3 words are going to be too short "I I I".

How can I grab as many words as possible before 20th character?

You can use regular expressions, or you can search for the space between words and use the split command to generate an array of words. — Cyber Slueth Omega, Jul 06 '13 at 22:17
Try This Link, May help You... http://stackoverflow.com/a/26098951/3944217 — Edwin Thomas, Sep 29 '14 at 12:07

score 6 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 06 '13 at 22:26

6

echo array_shift(explode("\n", wordwrap($text, 20)));

Documentation:

edited Jul 06 '13 at 22:26

Niet the Dark Absol

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answered Jul 06 '13 at 22:23

Rob

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Added some documentation links. +1 for using a function I'd forgotten about XD – Niet the Dark Absol Jul 06 '13 at 22:26

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 06 '13 at 22:21

Before I give you an answer in PHP, have you considered the following CSS solution?

overflow:hidden;
white-space:nowrap;
text-overflow:ellipsis;

This will result in the text being cut off at the most appropriate place and an ellipsis ... marking the cut-off.

If this is not the effect you're looking for, try this PHP:

$words = explode(" ",$input);
// if the first word is itself too long, like hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia‎
// then just cut that word off at 20 characters
if( strlen($words[0]) > 20) $output = substr($words[0],0,20);
else {
    $output = array_shift($words);
    while(strlen($output." ".$words[0]) <= 20) {
        $output .= " ".array_shift($words);
    }
}

How can I truncate a string in php without cutting off words?

2 Answers2