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

$yourString = "bla blaaa bla blllla bla bla";
$out = "";
if(strlen($yourString) > 22) {
    while(strlen($yourString) > 22) {
        $pos = strrpos($yourString, " ");
        if($pos !== false && $pos <= 22) {
            $out = substr($yourString,0,$pos);
            break;
        } else {
            $yourString = substr($yourString,0,$pos);
            continue;
        }
    }
} else {
    $out = $yourString;
}
echo "Output String: ".$out;