Truncating text displayed from Mysql record

[skipper2]

Hello, I have a MySql DB and am using PHP coded pages (using dreamweaver). 2 fields from each record are headline and body. I would like to have a page that displays just a small sample of each body (ie. to second period or 50 words). How can I truncate this text to display it rather then the whole content of the field in the record?

Thank you.

[devinemke]

SUBSTRING

[Drakla]

Another great mysql function on the same page is SUBSTRING_INDEX. To get it to bring back the first 50 words, assuming they were separated by spaces you'd use

SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX(article, ' ', 50);

To the second sentence

SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX(article, '.', 2);

I've used it to sort affiliates based on their email domain as when you use a negative 3rd parameter it returns from the right... so

SELECT id, username, LCASE(email) as email, validated FROM users WHERE affil = $affilID ORDER BY SUBSTRING_INDEX(email,'@', -1);

[skipper2]

I am trying to pull the first 2 sentecnces from a db where the table is news and the field i am pulling the first 2 sentences from is body.

<?php require_once('Connections/enforsys.php'); ?>
<?php
mysql_select_db($database_enforsys, $enforsys);
$query_Recordset1 = "SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX(body, '.', 2) FROM news ORDER BY date DESC";
$Recordset1 = mysql_query($query_Recordset1, $enforsys) or die(mysql_error());
$row_Recordset1 = mysql_fetch_assoc($Recordset1);
$totalRows_Recordset1 = mysql_num_rows($Recordset1);
?>

I am not getting an error, but it is not showing the data.

Here is the web site.

http://www.mohawkmedia.com/news.php

Thank you for your help in advance.

Mike