How to set character limit on the_content() and the_excerpt() in wordpress

Question

How do I set a character limit on the_content() and the_excerpt() in wordpress? I have only found solutions for the word limit - I want to be able to set an exact amount cha

Answer 1

This also balances HTML tags so that they won't be left open and doesn't break words.

add_filter("the_content", "break_text");
function break_text($text){
    $length = 500;
    if(strlen($text)<$length+10) return $text;//don't cut if too short

    $break_pos = strpos($text, ' ', $length);//find next space after desired length
    $visible = substr($text, 0, $break_pos);
    return balanceTags($visible) . " […]";
}