String truncate on length, but no chopping up of words allowed

Question

I want to limit a string field length in MYSQL on a certain length, but I don\'t want any chopping up of words to occur.

When I do:

SELECT SUBSTRING(         


        

Answer 1

Build on Narnian's answer, here's one that works with two fields (a.product,a.descr) and where "..." is added when the string is truncated. a.descr can be empty as well.

  IF (
CHARACTER_LENGTH(
  IF(
    a.descr = '',
    a.product,
    CONCAT_WS(' - ',a.product,a.descr)
  )
)>35,
IF(
  a.descr = '',
  CONCAT(
    REVERSE(SUBSTRING(REVERSE( SUBSTRING(a.product, 1, 35)), locate(' ', REVERSE( SUBSTRING(a.product, 1, 35))), 35)),
    '...'
  ),
  CONCAT(
    REVERSE(SUBSTRING(REVERSE( SUBSTRING(CONCAT_WS(' - ',a.product,a.descr), 1, 35)), locate(' ', REVERSE( SUBSTRING(CONCAT_WS(' - ',a.product,a.descr), 1, 35))), 35)),
    '...'
  )
),
CONCAT_WS(' - ',a.product,a.descr)
)

I needed something like this so that's why i added it. Might help someone else.