this will get you headed in the right direction
<?
$replace = "0123456789";
$replace = substr_replace ($replace, '', 8);
echo $replace;
?>
this will print:
01234567 // eight spaces
this code takes your variable and replaces anything after the 8th place with nothing, so all that displays in the first eight characters, this is just an example for how what you want can be done, not entirely sure what you are doing, but it should help
