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PHP – Return first n words from a string

Do you ever find yourself needing to shorten a string in PHP? Maybe return the first 25 words of a long story? Give this routine a try. It will return the first n words from a string, or the entire string if it is less than n words long.

PLAIN TEXT
PHP:
  1. function shorten_string($string, $wordsreturned)
  2. /*  Returns the first $wordsreturned out of $string.  If string
  3.     contains more words than $wordsreturned, the entire string
  4.     is returned.
  5.     */
  6.     {
  7.     $retval = $string;  //    Just in case of a problem
  8.     $array = explode(" ", $string);
  9.     if (count($array)<=$wordsreturned)
  10.     /*  Already short enough, return the whole thing
  11.         */
  12.         {
  13.         $retval = $string;
  14.         }
  15.     else
  16.     /*  Need to chop of some words
  17.         */
  18.         {
  19.         array_splice($array, $wordsreturned);
  20.         $retval = implode(" ", $array)." ...";
  21.         }
  22.     return $retval;
  23.     }

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 1st, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Coding, Tips & Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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