"Actual" length of string

[__Sti__]

I have a goofy issue that I'm not sure if PHP can handle:

I have a field coming from a MYSQL database which can have a length up to 100 characters.

I am displaying the field in a column, and if the field is too long, I want to chop it off and add "..." after it.

The code below works, but the problem is, depending on what characters are in the field, the "actual" length on the page can vary

example:
"this is simple testing"
"why we walking weirddd"

both have 22 characters, but obviously the second stretches farther to the right.

I need to find a way to check each "actual width" if possible.

Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks

$event_title_length = strlen($event_title);

if($event_title_length > 35){$event_title=substr($event_title,0,32).'...';

[dagon]

not really possible because it will depends on the letters, font, browser, os, screen ...
you will never know more than a few of those

[bradgrafelman]

The "actual width" is 22 characters.

The "perceived width" (made-up terminology, not sure what this would actually be called) depends entirely. on font type and size. Example:

[FONT="Arial"]"this is simple testing"[/FONT]
[FONT="Arial Narrow"]"why we walking weirddd"[/FONT]

Same test strings but with different font types. Another example:

[FONT="Courier New"]"this is simple testing"[/FONT]
[FONT="Courier New"]"why we walking weirddd"[/FONT]

Courier New is a fixed-width font, so this "perceived width" term I made up is now irrelevant.

Someone calculated, for example, some average character widths for various font types.

[__Sti__]

Thanks guys...

actually I hadn't thought about using Courier New, that would at least make the characters line up better and I'll just leave a buffer for browser/os differences

[dagon]

put evey letter in its own table cell then you could really make things match, or even create a graphic. not that i recommend any of this :-)

[shae_marks]

I have a goofy issue that I'm not sure if PHP can handle:

I have a field coming from a MYSQL database which can have a length up to 100 characters.
I am displaying the field in a column, and if the field is too long, I want to chop it off and add "..." after it.
The code below works, but the problem is, depending on what characters are in the field, the "actual" length on the page can vary
example:
"this is simple testing"
"why we walking weirddd"
both have 22 characters, but obviously the second stretches farther to the right.
I need to find a way to check each "actual width" if possible.
Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks

shae marks

[CoderDan]

Heh, this is a problem that doesn't really have a solution, short of kerning tables similar to those used in most pdf generation, or bradgrafelman's averages, either of which is serious overkill for web content.

I'm hoping a new CSS version will include a overflow: ellipsis; type rule. it would be so beautiful 😛