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

function limitStrlen($input, $length, $ellipses = true, $strip_html = true, $skip_html) 
{
    // strip tags, if desired
    if ($strip_html || !$skip_html) 
    {
        $input = strip_tags($input);

        // no need to trim, already shorter than trim length
        if (strlen($input) <= $length) 
        {
            return $input;
        }

        //find last space within length
        $last_space = strrpos(substr($input, 0, $length), ' ');
        if($last_space !== false) 
        {
            $trimmed_text = substr($input, 0, $last_space);
        } 
        else 
        {
            $trimmed_text = substr($input, 0, $length);
        }
    } 
    else 
    {
        if (strlen(strip_tags($input)) <= $length) 
        {
            return $input;
        }

        $trimmed_text = $input;

        $last_space = $length + 1;

        while(true)
        {
            $last_space = strrpos($trimmed_text, ' ');

            if($last_space !== false) 
            {
                $trimmed_text = substr($trimmed_text, 0, $last_space);

                if (strlen(strip_tags($trimmed_text)) <= $length) 
                {
                    break;
                }
            } 
            else 
            {
                $trimmed_text = substr($trimmed_text, 0, $length);
                break;
            }
        }

        // close unclosed tags.
        $doc = new DOMDocument();
        $doc->loadHTML($trimmed_text);
        $trimmed_text = $doc->saveHTML();
    }

    // add ellipses (...)
    if ($ellipses) 
    {
        $trimmed_text .= '...';
    }

    return $trimmed_text;
}

$str = "
Lorem ipsum 
dolor
 sit amet, consetetur.
";

// view the HTML
echo htmlentities(limitStrlen($str, 22, false, false, true), ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8');

// view the result
echo limitStrlen($str, 22, false, false, true);

Note: There may be a better way to close tags instead of using DOMDocument. For example we can use a p tag inside a h1 tag and it still will work. But in this case the heading tag will close before the p tag because theoretically it's not possible to use p tag inside it. So, be careful for HTML's strict standards.