Truncating varying lengths of information

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I was helped not long ago with a form of custom truncating by Toscho on this post it works very well but I’m finding that I need to create multiple length variations for different bits of content. For instance on my support page I need to 80 max_chars vs. my home page which I need 200 max_chars.

I tried adding a second instance of this function but unsurprisingly it totally killed other aspects of my site.

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As always, any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys! 

function utf8_truncate( $string, $max_chars = 200, $append = "xC2xA0…" )
{
    $string = strip_tags( $string );
    $string = html_entity_decode( $string, ENT_QUOTES, 'utf-8' );
    // xC2xA0 is the no-break space
    $string = trim( $string, "nrt .-;–,—xC2xA0" );
    $length = strlen( utf8_decode( $string ) );

    // Nothing to do.
    if ( $length < $max_chars )
    {
        return $string;
    }

    // mb_substr() is in /wp-includes/compat.php as a fallback if
    // your the current PHP installation doesn't have it.
    $string = mb_substr( $string, 0, $max_chars, 'utf-8' );

    // No white space. One long word or chinese/korean/japanese text.
    if ( FALSE === strpos( $string, ' ' ) )
    {
        return $string . $append;
    }

    // Avoid breaks within words. Find the last white space.
    if ( extension_loaded( 'mbstring' ) )
    {
        $pos   = mb_strrpos( $string, ' ', 'utf-8' );
        $short = mb_substr( $string, 0, $pos, 'utf-8' );
    }
    else
    {
        // Workaround. May be slow on long strings.
        $words = explode( ' ', $string );
        // Drop the last word.
        array_pop( $words );
        $short = implode( ' ', $words );
    }

    return $short . $append;
}
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1 comment

  1. I know toscho doesn’t like this very much, but anyway: Converted the input args to an array:

    function utf8_truncate( $args = array( 'string' => null, 'max_chars' => 200, 'append' => "xC2xA0…" ) )
{
    $args['string'] = strip_tags( $args['string'] );
    $args['string'] = html_entity_decode( $args['string'], ENT_QUOTES, 'utf-8' );
    // xC2xA0 is the no-break space
    $args['string'] = trim( $args['string'], "nrt .-;–,—xC2xA0" );
    $length = strlen( utf8_decode( $args['string'] ) );

    // Nothing to do.
    if ( $length < $args['max_chars'] )
    {
        return $args['string'];
    }

    // mb_substr() is in /wp-includes/compat.php as a fallback if
    // your the current PHP installation doesn't have it.
    $args['string'] = mb_substr( $args['string'], 0, $args['max_chars'], 'utf-8' );

    // No white space. One long word or chinese/korean/japanese text.
    if ( FALSE === strpos( $args['string'], ' ' ) )
    {
        return $args['string'] . $args['append'];
    }

    // Avoid breaks within words. Find the last white space.
    if ( extension_loaded( 'mbstring' ) )
    {
        $pos   = mb_strrpos( $args['string'], ' ', 'utf-8' );
        $short = mb_substr( $args['string'], 0, $pos, 'utf-8' );
    }
    else
    {
        // Workaround. May be slow on long strings.
        $words = explode( ' ', $args['string'] );
        // Drop the last word.
        array_pop( $words );
        $short = implode( ' ', $words );
    }

    return $short . $args['append'];
}

    This allows to use it like this (you possibily missed how to use arrays anyway):

    $args = array(
     'string' => 'bla'
    ,'max_chars' => 50 // INPUT LENGTH HERE
);
echo '<p>' . utf8_truncate( $args ) . '</p>';

    You could also switch this on demand:

    if ( is_page() )
{
    $args['max_chars'] = 100;
}
elseif ( is_archive() )
{
    $args['max_chars'] = 50;
}
elseif ( is_whatever() )
    ... etc ...
}