Getting just the first 20 characters

Question

How am I able to turn my string into only 20 characters long?

<?php print htmlspecialchars_decode($artist, 0, 20, "..."); ?>

Currently the code above displays an error.

<b>Warning</b>:  htmlspecialchars_decode() expects at most 2 parameters, 4 given in <b>/some/domain/path/some-file.php</b> on line <b>45</b><br />

How can I get around this error but still use htmlspecialchars_decode() with 20 character long title?

Possible duplicate of [Add ... if string is too long PHP](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11434091/add-if-string-is-too-long-php) — mopo922, Jan 08 '16 at 23:16

trincot · Answer 1 · 2016-01-08T23:23:41.887

2

You need to apply separate functions for that, substr and strlen:

$short_artist = htmlspecialchars_decode($artist);
if (strlen($short_artist) > 20) {
    $short_artist = substr($short_artist, 0, 17) . "...";
}

If the three dots can make the total 23 characters long, then change the 17 to 20.

edited Jan 08 '16 at 23:23

answered Jan 08 '16 at 23:18

trincot

@cale_b this answer would also work, but the other guy answered first and his answer works also.. – Ritzy Jan 08 '16 at 23:35
@Ritzy - this is the correct answer because it actually is full-featured. It's NOT the same answer as the other answer. – random_user_name Jan 08 '16 at 23:36

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 08 '16 at 23:18

1

Try:

print substr(htmlspecialchars_decode($artist), 0, 20);

Also see in the docs: substr()

answered Jan 08 '16 at 23:18

ArSeN

2 Answers2