Shorten text without splitting words or breaking html tags

Question

I am trying to cut off text after 236 chars without cutting words in half and preserving html tags. This is what I am using right now:

$shortdesc = $_helper-         


        

Answer 1

Can I just give a thought ?

Sample text :

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, magna aliquyam erat, duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren hello

First, parse it into:

array(
    '0' => array(
        'tag' => '',
        'text' => 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, '
    ),
    '1' => array(
        'tag' => '',
        'text' => 'magna aliquyam erat',
    )
    '2' => ......
    '3' => ......
)

then cut the text one by one, and wrap each one with its tag after cut,

then join them.