display first 4 lines of an article

[php_newB]

Hi

 

I am a php newbee and I am building a CMS which stores articles in a database.

I know how to display the whole article but what I want to do is to get an article from the database and display the first 4 lines of that article with a link for readers to read the whole article. so I was wondering is there anyway way to do this.

 

Thanks in advance

 

[ignace]

sure their is, no problem xD

because you did not provide any code, i will be using assumptions

 

<?php
// assuming we are connected to a database with type MySQL
// and we have already queried the database, and saved that in a variable called $result...
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    echo substr($row['article_body'], 0, 186) . "..."; // displays 186 characters from your article
    printf("<p><a href='article.php?id=%s'>Read More</a></p>", $row['article_id']); // the read more link
}

// adjust to your own needs, it is not the best example but it should get you started
// from programmer to programmer, i would also give you the advice to "abuse" the search function option
// on www.php.net, so you can look up functions and what they do, like substr() for exampe!
?>

[php_newB]

Thanks ignace for your reply, I'll take your advice and look at php function in future.

As I said I am a newB and trying to learn php but I accept I have been a bit lazy !!

Thanks again for your help