PHP +only output X number of words (or letters?)

[N8]

function output_News($a = 5,$f = ""){
global $db, $Data, $vbulletin;

// Define amount to show
$Amount = ($a)? intval($a) : 5;

// Define Forum To Pull From
$Forum = ($f)? intval($f): '';

if(!$Forum){
RunError("No specified forum to pull news from.");
}

// Load Template
$Template = LoadTemplate("news.html");

// Collect Data
$NewestNews = $db->query("
select t.*,p.pagetext
from ".TABLE_PREFIX."thread t
left join ".TABLE_PREFIX."post p on(p.postid=t.firstpostid)
where t.forumid = $Forum
order by dateline desc
limit 0,$Amount");


$bbcode_parser =& new vB_BbCodeParser($vbulletin, fetch_tag_list());

while($News = $db->fetch_array($NewestNews)){
$Data .= ParseTemplate($Template,
array(
'threadid' => $News['threadid'],
'threadname' => $News['title'],
'postuserid' => $News['postuserid'],
'postusername' => $News['postusername'],
'post' => $bbcode_parser->parse(unhtmlspecialchars($News['pagetext']), $f),
'comments' => vb_number_format($News['replycount']),
)
);
}

doOutput();
}

I'm using VBExternal on my website, and I need to modify that little bit of code displaying the actual news post to only output a maximum of 30 words, or 190 characters.

'post' => $bbcode_parser->parse(unhtmlspecialchars($News['pagetext']), $f),

I used to know how to do this through php, but I havn't coded for about 10 months and I've forgotten so much :(

__________________________________________________ ___





Figured it out, it was easier than I thought :)

'post' => $bbcode_parser->parse(unhtmlspecialchars(substr($News['pagetext'], 0, 100)), $f), worked :)

[jugo]

I answered this in the vBExternal Threads.