PHP Phrase Question

[TheMayhem]

This is something simple that I've seen used many times but don't know what the function is. Let's say you have a phrase

$hello = "Hello World;

The function I'm looking for is something where if I want it to only display the first 8 characters it'd show

Hello Wo

And so forth, any ideas on what I need to use for this kind of function?

[Xenon]

substr is your friend:

http://de.php.net/manual/en/function.substr.php

[TheMayhem]

Indeed it is :) thanks.

[Xenon]

you're welcome