Get first n characters of a string

Question

How can I get the first n characters of a string in PHP? What\'s the fastest way to trim a string to a specific number of characters, and append \'...\' if needed?

Answer 1

The codeigniter framework contains a helper for this, called the "text helper". Here's some documentation from codeigniter's user guide that applies: http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/helpers/text_helper.html (just read the word_limiter and character_limiter sections). Here's two functions from it relevant to your question:

if ( ! function_exists('word_limiter'))
{
    function word_limiter($str, $limit = 100, $end_char = '…')
    {
        if (trim($str) == '')
        {
            return $str;
        }

        preg_match('/^\s*+(?:\S++\s*+){1,'.(int) $limit.'}/', $str, $matches);

        if (strlen($str) == strlen($matches[0]))
        {
            $end_char = '';
        }

        return rtrim($matches[0]).$end_char;
    }
}

And

if ( ! function_exists('character_limiter'))
{
    function character_limiter($str, $n = 500, $end_char = '…')
    {
        if (strlen($str) < $n)
        {
            return $str;
        }

        $str = preg_replace("/\s+/", ' ', str_replace(array("\r\n", "\r", "\n"), ' ', $str));

        if (strlen($str) <= $n)
        {
            return $str;
        }

        $out = "";
        foreach (explode(' ', trim($str)) as $val)
        {
            $out .= $val.' ';

            if (strlen($out) >= $n)
            {
                $out = trim($out);
                return (strlen($out) == strlen($str)) ? $out : $out.$end_char;
            }       
        }
    }
}