Limiting an HTML article to a # of characters.

[munsiem]

I am relatively new here, so I thought I would go ahead and get started with my first post.  I am currently writing a script that takes a block of text (with html statements included) and limiting it to a # of characters.

 

Ex:

 

"My name is <b>Mike</b> and I am here to program"

 

If I limited this to 12 characters, it should display:

 

"My name is "...

 

My script is working pretty decently right now, but I was wondering if anyone had a better idea.

 

This is the basic layout for the code >>

 

Step 1. "Create two strings"

 

- One with the HTML statements included

- The other with just the text and no HTML tags

 

Step 2. "Take all the HTML tags and place them into an array"

 

With doing so, I also keep track of the location within the text of where the HTML tag was stored.

 

Step 3. "Cut off the article by # of characters"

 

I then take the article and chop it to # of characters.  I wrote a routine that rounds to the nearest word.

 

Ex: "my name is mike"

[munsiem]

I accidentally submitted without finishing the article! Lol, man I am a noob...

 

Anyways, the next portion of this is:

 

...

 

Ex: "my name is mike"

                ^^ Cutoff point is 12 chars

 

Would be:-> "my name is"...

 

Step 4. "Place HTML Tags Back In"

 

I then created a routine where I placed my HTML tags back in by their location in the original string.  I also keep a counter of the length of the article with the # of chars limited.  This is so every HTMl tag within the original text can be placed back into it's position.

 

Step 4. "Close HTML Tags and Display"

 

Finally I close any tag that was left open so that the formatting of my text afterwards will not be changed.

 

 

??? Any ideas for an easier way?  ???