Unlimited input characters, limited output characters

Strikebf

Hi there!

I have a bit of an issue with a script I'm working with. Maybe it's not an issue, but it's an important part of it that I haven't quite figured out how to do.

For a script I'm working on, I need a bibliographical entry generator that takes the user's input and turns it into an bibliographical entry.

Here's the thing-- for a few types of entries, I can only use the first initial of the author or editor's first name , but I also need to have access to the complete first name :mad: . I think that asking for both would be silly and tedious, because I'm pretty sure what I want to do is possible.

If anyone could point me in the right direction of a script that can limit the output while giving no limit on the input, that'd be great.

Thanks a lot 😃
Ben

laserlight

You could make it a link, or perhaps use clientside scripting to expand the initial to the full name on a mouseover.

As a side note: how do you figure out the first name, anyway? With the different naming conventions across cultures, it seems impossible to get it absolutely right other than to ask the person to declare which parts of his/her name is which.

Strikebf

Laserlight,

Thanks for your response but I don't think you've gotten my question.

I am looking for help to code or find a script that can take input and then cut out all of the letters except the first one.

As for your side note, I don't think there'd be an issue there. In any book that you'd find, there's something in the front cover (at least) that declares which is the "first" name and which is the "last" name.

xblue

You have not come across [man]substr[/man] yet I guess?

Sounds like it might turn out to be helpful.

Weedpacket

Strikebf wrote:
As for your side note, I don't think there'd be an issue there. In any book that you'd find, there's something in the front cover (at least) that declares which is the "first" name and which is the "last" name.

I presume you're talking about the cataloguing-in-publication data, though that's hardly the "front cover". If so, you should realise that the presence and/or format of that is hardly constant across cultures either. All I had to do to find a refutation was pick up a book that was not published in the United States (at least, not the edition I was holding).

Roger_Ramjet

And all I have to do is pick up a book published in the UK whose author is Chinese, etc. Out in east asia I end up being called Mr Dawid because they don't realise that David is my first name and here in the UK people make that same mistake with their names.

laserlight

I am looking for help to code or find a script that can take input and then cut out all of the letters except the first one.

Aside from substr() as suggested by xblue, you can simply access the first character, e.g. $str[0] or the deprecated $str{0}

Eric_T

I think he could also use trim()