How to truncate an UTF8 string in PHP?

Question

I have some strings in my PHP code that need to be truncated if they are too long.

For example if a text is something like this:

Hi, I would like to tell you how wonderful this is.

It would replace it with this:

Hi, I would like to ...

For that I've done a simple substr. The problem is that in UTF8 some characters are actually two characters long. And I've had some problems with a character being cut in the middle: For example, when I try to insert the modified string in the database, it crashes.

Here is my current function:

static function short($string, $max = 255){ if(strlen($string) >= $max){ $string = substr($string, 0, $max - 5).'...'; } return $string; }

Would someone know a way to make this function work even for UTF8 characters?

have a look at https://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/includes!unicode.inc/function/truncate_utf8/7 — Mohammad Ali Akbari
– Mohammad Ali Akbari, Commented Jun 8, 2013 at 8:36
You might find s($str)->truncate($length) and s($str)->truncateSafely($length) helpful, as found in this standalone library. Both versions are Unicode-safe. The latter does not break words. — caw
– caw, Commented Jul 27, 2016 at 2:58

Timur · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-13 04:09:39Z

27

Everything you need is mb_strimwidth() : http://php.net/manual/en/function.mb-strimwidth.php

Example:

mb_strimwidth('Hi, I would like to tell you how wonderful this is.',0,15,'...','utf-8');

answered Dec 13, 2011 at 4:09

Timur

6,7381 gold badge30 silver badges37 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Álvaro González Over a year ago

@trejder No, it isn't. The initial version of this article was claiming that mb_strimwidth() is deprecated in PHP 7.2 and that this deprecation was a source of described problem. It turned out that mb_strimwidth() is (of course!) not deprecated in PHP 7.2.

trejder Over a year ago

@ÁlvaroGonzález Correct! I'm removing my comment. Thanks!

Tudor Constantin · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-13 04:32:19Z

9

try with mb_substr() :

static function short($string, $max = 255){ if(mb_strlen($string, 'utf-8') >= $max){ $string = mb_substr($string, 0, $max - 5, 'utf-8').'...'; } return $string; }

edited Dec 13, 2011 at 4:32

answered Dec 13, 2011 at 4:04

Tudor Constantin

26.9k7 gold badges54 silver badges73 bronze badges

1 Comment

Tudor Constantin Over a year ago

@deceze - you are right, thx for pointing that out - i corrected the copy/pasted code

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to truncate an UTF8 string in PHP?

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

1 Comment

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

1 Comment

Linked

Related