help limiting number of characters pulled from database

[RyanSF07]

Hello,

 

I've got:

$query_result2 = mysql_query($sql2);
while ($row2 = mysql_fetch_array($query_result2)) {

 

listing content in a table with:

<td style=\"padding: 3px 20px 5px 3px\"><p>".$row2['assignment']."</p></td>

 

I would like to limit the number of characters of the 'assignment' to 50.

 

I tried:

row2['assignment_number'] = $assign;
if(strlen($assign)>50){
echo substr($assign, 0, 50);
}

 

and then listing it with:

<td style=\"padding: 3px 20px 5px 3px\"><p>".$assign."</p></td>

 

but that didn't work.

 

Any pointers on how to accomplish this? Thank you,

Ryan

 

[taquitosensei]

you were pretty damn close

row2['assignment_number'] = $assign;
if(strlen($assign)>50){
$assign= substr($assign, 0, 50);
}

[rpmorrow]

You are trying to test and trim your empty variable. Use this instead..

 

$assign = row2['assignment_number'];
if(strlen($assign)>50){
echo substr($assign, 0, 50);
}