limit include() to first 500 characters

ungovernable

i have an include on my page, it shows a html file with only text

is there a way i could limit the result to only the first 500 characters?

Kudose

//untested
$text = substr(include('myfile.html'), 0, 500));
echo $text;

//or 

//untested
$text = include('myfile.html');
echo substr($text, 0, 500);

Installer

ob_start();
include $file;
$text = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean(); 
echo substr($text, 0, 500);

A better idea:

echo substr(file_get_contents($test_file), 0, 500);

bradgrafelman

Probably more optimized would be:

$fp = fopen($test_file, 'r');
echo fread($fp, 500);

Either way, you shouldn't use include() if it's just static HTML.

NogDog

Whatever you do, if it is HTML, what is your plan for ensuring that the truncated text is still valid HTML? For instance, what if your arbitrary break is in the middle of a <li> item within a <ul> list, or perhaps in the middle of a table? Or even worse: in the middle of a HTML tag?

Kudose

$fp = fopen($file, 'r');
$text = strip_tags(fread($fp, filesize($file)));
echo substr($text, 0, 500);

Kudose

I guess the old Perl rule of there's more than one way to do it definitely applies here.

NogDog

Kudose wrote:
I guess the old Perl rule of there's more than one way to do it definitely applies here.

Also, understanding the exact requirement always helps, e.g.: what is the nature of the file being included, why does it need to be truncated, is breaking in the middle of a word OK, how to handle HTML or other tags, etc., etc., and so forth.