PHP substr() Displaying a maximum amount of characters

[scraptoft]

Hi phpbuilders,

I am trying to select from my mysql database. I want to dispaly a maximum of 200 characters from the field 'text'. After those 200 characters I wish to display a [Read More] button.

Heres my code:

<?php

include('db.php');


$query = "SELECT * FROM article ORDER BY id DESC";
//execute the query
$result = mysql_query($query);
//start creating our table
echo ("<table width = '100%' border = '0' cellspacing = '0' cellpadding = '0'>");
//loop through rows in the database
while ($rows = mysql_fetch_row($result))

$var = ('text'); // set variable

$varlength = strlen($var); // count number of characters

$limit = 200; // set character limit

if ($varlength > $limit) { // if character number if more than character limit

$var = substr($var,0,$limit) . "..."; // display string up to character limit, add dots

}

echo ("  <tr><td> <h1><a href= ' article.php?title=$rows[1] ' >$rows[1]</a></h1></td></tr> ");
//in the next row we display the description which is $rows[2]
echo ("  <tr><td class= 'url' ><a href= ' http://domain.com ' >domain.Com</a>/<a href= ' category.php?category=$rows[2] ' >$rows[2]</a></td> </tr>");
echo ("  <tr><td class= 'date' >$rows[3]</td> </tr>");
echo ("<tr><td class= 'text' >$rows[4]</td> </tr>");
echo ("<tr><td><a href='http://moreinfo.php'>$text</a></td> </tr>");
}

?>

I think I am possibly having a problem setting my $var as I am using rows to output my data.

Any guidance will be of much help.

Cheers

[laserlight]

Shouldnt you assign the relevant element of $rows to $var, then write $var?

[scraptoft]

laserlight wrote:

Shouldnt you assign the relevant element of $rows to $var, then write $var?

My head is spinning: do you mean set $var as the row of which it is output ($rows[4])

$var = ('$rows[4]'); // set variable

Thankyou for your responce.

[laserlight]

Yes, though you dont need the parentheses.

[scraptoft]

Thanks again laserlight.

I have just done a search and had a read about parentheses.

Could this be the reason why the substr() isn't working? Of what I read it seams I should be using print() instead of echo() would this make sense?

[laserlight]

Could this be the reason why the substr() isn't working?

No. Here they are redundant, but do no harm.

Of what I read it seams I should be using print() instead of echo() would this make sense?

Generally echo should be preferred to print, but here it makes no difference.

Check your code again. Are you sure that you have changed:

echo ("<tr><td class= 'text' >$rows[4]</td> </tr>");

to

echo "<tr><td class='text'>$var</td> </tr>";

[scraptoft]

There was a few problems with the code, including the $var. Thanks for your help laserlight, it was very appreciated!

Here is my working code, if anyone is interested:

<?

include('db.php');


$tmp=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM article ORDER BY id DESC");
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($tmp)){


$title = $row['title'];
$category = $row['category'];
$date = $row['date'];
$text = $row['text'];


$var = ("$text");

$varlength = strlen($var);

$limit = 500;

if ($varlength > $limit) {

$var = substr($var,0,$limit);

}

echo "<table width = '100%' border = '0' cellspacing = '0' cellpadding = '0'>";


echo "  <tr><td> <h1><a href= ' article.php?title=$title ' >$title</a></h1></td></tr> ";


echo "  <tr><td class= 'url' ><a href= ' http://domain.com ' >domain.Com</a>/<a href= '

category.php?category=$category ' >$category</a></td> </tr>";

echo "  <tr><td class= 'date' >$date</td> </tr>";

echo "<tr><td class= 'description' >$var...</td> </tr><tr><td><a href= ' article.php?title=$title ' >[Read More]</a></td> </tr>";

echo"</table><br>";

}
?>

[bradgrafelman]

You could also get rid of all of these lines:

var = ("$text"); 

$varlength = strlen($var); 

$limit = 500; 

if ($varlength > $limit) { 

$var = substr($var,0,$limit); 

} 

and just make MySQL do all the work for you, like so:

$tmp=mysql_query("SELECT title, category, date, SUBSTRING(text, 1, 200) AS text FROM article ORDER BY id DESC"); 

[scraptoft]

Excellent Bradgrafelman, I didn't know mysql could handle this, I will have a play around with it once I get home.

Cheers