note 12634 deleted from ref.strings by maxim

To shorten a string to a certain number of characters, replacing surplus chars with a shortening symbol such as "[...]", use the following simple function: ========= CUT ========== function shorten_string($text, $length, $symbol = "[...]") { $length_text = strlen($text); $length_symbol = strlen($symbol); if($length_text <= $length || $length_text <= $length_symbol || $length <= $length_symbol) return($text); else return(substr($text, 0, $length - $length_symbol) . $symbol); } ========= CUT ========== The parameter $text ist the string to be shortened. $length is the maximum number of characters in the new string. $symbol is the shortening symbol (default is "[...]"). If shortening would make no sense, the original string is returned.