Sometimes you just need to shorten that huge wall of text. Here are two functions that I use frequently to limit the display of lengthy user input:
<?php
/* truncate input by chars. */
function jTruncate($sInput, $iMaxChars = 10, $sCapText = "...") {
if (strlen($sInput) > $iMaxChars) {
$sInput = substr($sInput, 0, $iMaxChars) . $sCapText;
}
return $sInput;
}
/* truncate input by words. */
function jTruncateWords($sInput, $iMaxWords = 10, $sCapText = "...") {
$aInput = explode(" ", $sInput);
$sOutput = "";
for ($i = 0; $i < sizeof($aInput); $i++) {
if ($i < $iMaxWords) $sOutput .= (!empty($sOutput) ? " " : "") . $aInput[$i];
}
if (sizeof($aInput) > $iMaxWords) {
$sOutput .= $sCapText;
}
return $sOutput;
}
?>
The first function, jTruncate(), truncates text if it is greater than the specified number of characters. For example, if you pass “This is a large block of text!” with a character limit of 12, it will become “This is a lar…”
The second function, jTruncateWords(), does the same thing except it’s based on words instead of characters. For example, if you pass “This is a large block of text!” with a word limit of 4, it will become “This is a large…”
Tags: Limit, PHP, Shorten, Truncate
