[RESOLVED] Substr to words rather than chars?

unclecurio

Hello again!

I'm trying to pull out snippets for website articles that will show the first 50 words or so of a feature but I'm a little stuck - I know I can use substr() to chop after a given length of characters but that leaves it open to cutting halfway through words - something I really don't want.

Has anyone built something like this before?

NogDog

I have done this in the past:

$maxLength = 100; // characters
preg_match('/^.{1,'.$maxLength.'}\b/s', $text, $matches); // \b to break at word boundary
$extract = $matches[0];
if(strlen($extract) < strlen($text))
{
   $extract .= '...';
}
echo $extract;

dagon

ifmysql, substring_index is quicker.

Weedpacket

If you want to be accurate about the number of words:

preg_split('/\b/', $text, $limit2+1). 2 because there are two word breaks for every word, and +1 to represent "the rest" of the string. If you do get $limit*2+1 pieces, then it means the original was more than $limit words long. Use array_pop() to get rid of it. Use join('', $pieces) to put the pieces back together again. Optionally append "..." if you popped.

unclecurio

Weedpacket;10902388 wrote:
If you want to be accurate about the number of words:

preg_split('/\b/', $text, $limit2+1). 2 because there are two word breaks for every word, and +1 to represent "the rest" of the string. If you do get $limit*2+1 pieces, then it means the original was more than $limit words long. Use array_pop() to get rid of it. Use join('', $pieces) to put the pieces back together again. Optionally append "..." if you popped.

I think I'm missing something there - I'm only managing to output the first single word of the string.

Code as I have it is:

$taster=preg_split('/\b/', $rows[5], 50*2+1);
echo "$taster[1]";

bradgrafelman

unclecurio wrote:
I'm only managing to output the first single word of the string.

Isn't that precisely what you told PHP to do?

echo "$taster[1]";

dagon

bradgrafelman;10902524 wrote:
Isn't that precisely what you told PHP to do?

It's not suppose to do what i tell it, it's suppose to do what i want.

bradgrafelman

Ah, of course. :p

@: If dagon's suggestion is the case, you should re-read Weedpacket's last post carefully (especially the last bit about using [man]join/man to re-create the new string after [man]array_pop/man'ing (if necessary).

unclecurio

Reading the post again is no help if you've misunderstood the actions of the functions involved ;-p

Okay so I think I have a better grasp now:

The first part splits the string into an array word by word.
I use array_pop() to crop off the final item thus ensuring no partial words
I use join to bring the contents of the array back into a single variable to be echoed out

unclecurio

So for anyone else looking for the same solution, my code is:

$limit=20;
$taster=preg_split('/\b/', $original_text, $word_limit*2+1);
		$taster_waste=array_pop($taster);
		$taster=implode($taster);