Limit length of echo call

Hello,

I have job descriptions saved to my database table and want to call
them to output them to a table but only want to output a portion of the
saved job description....like the first 200 letters.

How can I do that?

Thanks

samir.doshi@gmail.com

In message < om>,
writes

>I have job descriptions saved to my database table and want to call
>them to output them to a table but only want to output a portion of the
>saved job description....like the first 200 letters.
>
>How can I do that?

PHP?

Try:

echo substr($string, 0, 200);
--
Martin Jay

wrote:

> I have job descriptions saved to my database table and want to call
> them to output them to a table but only want to output a portion of
> the saved job description....like the first 200 letters.
>
> How can I do that?

Depends on your language. In PHP, it would be: substr()

echo substr($jobdesc, 0, 200);

--
-bts
-Warning: I brake for lawn deer

samir.doshi wrote:

> I have job descriptions saved to my database table and want to call
> them to output them to a table but only want to output a portion of the
> saved job description....like the first 200 letters.

As you use the term 'echo' I'm going to assume you use PHP. ('echo' also
exists in shell scripting and DOS batch files, though they are not
generally noted for their database connectivity. Probably some other
languages use an 'echo' command too.) In future please specify what
language you're using -- you are likely to get more/better answers that
way.

In PHP, there exists a function substr(). (Almost identical functions
exist in C, Perl, Java and Javascript -- and probably other languages too.)

The syntax of substr() is either:

substr(STRING, START, LENGTH)
substr(STRING, START)

this will find a sub-string of the given STRING, starting at character
START (the characters are numbered from 0). If the LENGTH is given, the
sub-string is limited to that many characters; if not, the sub-string
continues to the end of the given STRING.

Examples:

<?php

$example = 'abcdefghij';

echo substr($example, 3, 2);
// 'de'

echo substr($example, 7, 3);
// 'hij'

echo substr($example, 7, 100);
// 'hij'

echo substr($example, 6);
// 'ghij'

echo substr($example, 0, 3);
// 'abc'

?>

So to limit your job description to 200 characters, you want to use:

<?php
echo substr($jobdesc, 0, 200);
?>

You might also want to include an ellipsis (…) character after that:

<?php
echo substr($jobdesc, 0, 200) . '…';
?>

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact

Toby Inkster wrote:

> You might also want to include an ellipsis (…) character after that:
>
> <?php
> echo substr($jobdesc, 0, 200) . '…';
> ?>
>

or maybe:

<?php

if(strlen($jobdesc)>200){
echo substr($jobdesc, 0, 200) . '…';
}
else {
echo $jobdesc;
}

?>
--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

Jonathan N. Little wrote:

> <?php
>
> if(strlen($jobdesc)>200){
> echo substr($jobdesc, 0, 200) . '…';
> }
> else {
> echo $jobdesc;
> }
>
> ?>

Yep -- even better. Though I prefer to allow a little grace for pieces
of text that are only just over the limit. For example:

<?php
if (strlen($jobdesc)>220)
echo substr($jobdesc, 0, 200) . '…';
else
echo $jobdesc;
?>

And I suppose we should be escaping any special characters...

<?php
if (strlen($jobdesc)>220)
echo htmlentities(substr($jobdesc, 0, 200)) . '…';
else
echo htmlentities($jobdesc);
?>

Bonus points for not leaving cutting it so that there are no partial wor...

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact