Posted by tg-php on 10/29/05 19:24

Good start guys. That's usually how I start down the path in solving a new problem. Invariably down the road I find a more "refined" way of doing what I did the hard way. The hard way is good though, you learn stuff along the way.

Let's see how tight we can make this though:

<?php
$string = " This is a test string of some sort. ";
$truncated = truncstr($string);
echo $truncated;

function truncstr($tmpstr) {
$maxwords = 4;

$tmpstr = trim($tmpstr);
$wordarr = explode(" ", $tmpstr);
if (count($wordarr) > $maxwords) {
$wordarr = array_slice($wordarr, 0, $maxwords);
$tmpstr = implode(" ", $wordarr) . "...";
} else {
$tmpstr = implode(" ", $wordarr);
}
return $tmpstr;
}
?>

..... Or if you want really obfuscated code...

<?PHP
$string = " This is a test string of some sort. ";
$truncated = truncstr($string);
echo $truncated;

function truncstr($tmpstr) {
return implode(" ", array_slice(explode(" ", trim($tmpstr)), 0, 4)) . "...";
}
?>

-TG

= = = Original message = = =

Good job!

However, let me give a few suggestions to optimize the code

function trim_text($text, $count)

~$text = str_replace(" ", " ", $text);
~/*
~ * This is redundant; you are replacing all " " in $text with " "
~ * maybe you meant
~ * $text = trim($text); ?
~ */

~$string = explode(" ", $text);
~
~/*
~ * For better programming practice, you should initialize $trimed
~ * I believe if you turn on error_reporting for all in php.ini
~ * PHP will display all warnings and errors.
~ */


~for ( $wordCounter = 0; $wordCounter <= $count;wordCounter++ )
~/*
~ * Typo - you forgot the $ for wordCounter++
~ *
~ * for ( $wordCounter = 0; $wordCounter <= $count; $wordCounter++)
~ */
~
~~$trimed .= $string[$wordCounter];
~~if ( $wordCounter < $count )
~~
~~~$trimed .= " ";
~~
~~else
~~
~~~$trimed .= "...";
~~
~

~$trimed = trim($trimed);
~return $trimed;




This is purely my suggestion... and I'm not saying it is better... but
if I were you, I'd do it this way :

function trim_text($text, $count)

~$text = trim($text);

~$string = explode(" ", $text);
~$trimed='';
~for ( $wordCounter = 0; $wordCounter <= $count; $wordCounter++ )
~
~~$trimed .= $string[$wordCounter].' ';
~

~$trimed = trim($trimed);

~if (count($string)>$count)
~~$trimed.='...';

~return $trimed;


The only difference(not that you'd notice in a lightweight routine like
this) is that, I don't have that if-else block inside the loop.


Danny wrote:

>Finally i found it (Google is god, you only have to ask the right question)
> function trim_text($text, $count)
>$text = str_replace(" ", " ", $text);
>$string = explode(" ", $text);
>for ( $wordCounter = 0; $wordCounter <= $count;wordCounter++ )
>$trimed .= $string[$wordCounter];
>if ( $wordCounter < $count ) $trimed .= " ";
>else $trimed .= "...";
>
>$trimed = trim($trimed);
>return $trimed;
>
>
>Usage
>------------------------------------------------
>$string = "one two three four";
>echo trim_text($string, 3);
>
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>From: Danny <metalito@gmail.com>
>Date: Oct 29, 2005 1:36 PM
>Subject: Substr by words
>To: php-general@lists.php.net
>
> Hi,
> I need to extract 50 words more or less from a description field. How can i
>do that?. Substr, cuts the words. Is there any other way to that, without
>using and array? I mean and implemented function in PHP 4.x
> I~ve been googling around, but wordwrap, and substr is driving me mad...
> Thanks in advance
>Best Regards
>
>--
>dpc
>
>
>--
>dpc


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