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

I developed a function for this use

 function str_short($string,$limit)
        {
            $len=strlen($string);
            if($len>$limit)
            {
             $to_sub=$len-$limit;
             $crop_temp=substr($string,0,-$to_sub);
             return $crop_len=$crop_temp."...";
            }
            else
            {
                return $string;
            }
        }

you just call the function with string and limite
eg:str_short("hahahahahah",5);
it will cut of your string and add "..." at the end
:)