> -----Original Message----- > From: Dwayne Heronimo [mailto:dwayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] > Dear All, > > I am very new to programming. I want to make a preview text that would > display only a part of the text that is a text field in a database. > > //Begin Make preview string > > $minitxt = $row_show_cat['text']; > $len = strlen($minitxt); > > if ($len > 235) > { > $len = 235; > } > else > { > $len = $len; > } > > $newstring = substr($minitxt,0,$len); > > $previewtext = $newstring; > > //End Make preview string > > But if I want to display this somewhere in the page it will only > display the > first record of at every text column row <?php echo $previewstext ?> > > Althought I am very new to php and programming. I thought maybe I should > rewrite it into a function. But my function won't work. > > > function previewString($showcatvar) { > > $minitxt = $showcatvar; > $len = strlen($minitxt); > > if ($len > 235) > { > $len = 235; > } > else > { > $len = $len; > } > > $newstring = substr($minitxt,0,$len); > > $previewtext = $newstring; > > $previewtext = $whowcatvar; > > } > > > and to display it in the page: > > <?php echo previewString($row_show_cat['text']) ?> > > IT displays notthing. But I think I am doing somthing wrong. I am > assigning > the wrong variables to the $row_show_cat['text']) ??? > > Please let me know Hi Dwayne, Your function isn't working as you expect because you are not returning any value. I would rewrite it as: function previewString($strInput) { // Max length allowed // You could also store this in a config file or pass in as // a second, possibly optional argument. $intMaxLen = 235; if (strlen($strInput) > $intMaxLen) { // Too long so trucate it (and add ... to show // it is truncated. I subtract 3 to allow for ...) return substr($strInput, 0, ($intMaxLen-3)).'...' } // If we get here it is less than or equal to the allowed max so just return it return $strInput; } You would then call the function when you needed the truncated string, e.g. <?php echo previewString($previewstext); ?> If you are outputting this to a web page, you'll probably also want to pass it through the htmlentities function: <?php echo htmlentities(previewString($previewstext)); ?> Good luck, Edward -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
