Limit echo to a number of characters

[masgas]

I'd like to print the latest messages from a forum in the index... the question is...

how do I limit the length of the topic's names so the table that holds it doesn't become too large and makes the whole design crazy!

is there anyway?

here is the echo I've got...

<?php echo "<a href='sec_sind/view_topic.php?id=$id' target='_self'>".$last_topic."</a>"?>

I want to limit $last_topic let's say to 10 chars max.

thank you in advance!

[obsidian]

In cases like this, substr() is your friend. It's great to run a function that will format it as you want. For instance, if you want 10 characters to be the absolute limit, you could always trim it to 7 and add elipsis as your final 3 characters, too:
[code]
<?php
function shortenMe($String, $limit = 10) {
  // default to 10 characters, but you can allow for whatever you wish
  if (strlen($String) > $limit) {
    $String = substr($String, 0, ($limit - 3)) . "...";
  }

  return $String;
}

$title = "Hello to all those of you who know how to shorten post title!";
echo shortenMe($title); // Hello t...
?>
[/code]

Hope this helps!

[Jenk]

To prevent words being cut in half, you can use this simple step:
[code]<?php

$string = 'one two three four five six seven eight';

$part = substr($string, 0, 20);

echo substr($part, 0, strrpos($part, ' '));

?>[/code]

[masgas]

Excellent, I'll give it a try and let you know!!!

Thanks to both!!!

[obsidian]

[quote author=Jenk link=topic=114922.msg467754#msg467754 date=1163509995]
To prevent words being cut in half, you can use this simple step:
[code]<?php

$string = 'one two three four five six seven eight';

$part = substr($string, 0, 20);

echo substr($part, 0, strrpos($part, ' '));

?>[/code]
[/quote]

Good call, Jenk. There are some more complex ways to get this basic functionality into a trim function with a little more control, but that's an incredibly simple way to get the basic function down. Thanks for the addition.

[masgas]

It's working just fine!

Thanks again.