PHP: A function to return the first n words from a string

Wednesday December 29th, 2004
Posted in Programming  
E-Mail This Post/Page   

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.    
  9.     $array = explode(" ", $string);
  10.     if (count($array)<=$wordsreturned)
  11.     /*  Already short enough, return the whole thing
  12.         */
  13.         {
  14.         $retval = $string;
  15.         }
  16.     else
  17.     /*  Need to chop of some words
  18.         */
  19.         {
  20.         array_splice($array, $wordsreturned);
  21.         $retval = implode(" ", $array)." ...";
  22.         }
  23.     return $retval;
  24.     }

A routine to create GUIDs in PHP
A quick PHP function to get Post, Get, or Session variables; and Cookies too
Javascript time formatting function
Get ImageMagick version with PHP
file_get_contents function for PHP 4

Leave a Comment

« Multiple cases for switch construct Friday the 13th asteroid will miss the Earth »