How do i set maximum characters?

[Aaron1]

IS that very hard to do?
I was trying to incorporate that in the follwing script:

PHP Code:

$result = mysql_query("SELECT title, threadid, dateline FROM thread WHERE forumid NOT IN ('10','16')ORDER BY dateline DESC LIMIT 40");

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))

{
      echo "<a class=\"cap\" href=\"javascript:;\" onClick=\"opener.location='/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=".$row["threadid"]."'\">".$row["title"]."</a>\r\n";
      
} 


I know it has something to do with:

PHP Code:

$maxchars=25;   //title lenght in characters

  if (strlen($thread['title']) > $maxchars) {
    $thread['title'] = substr($thread['title'], 0, $maxchars - 2) . '...';
  } 


But haven't got a clue how to combine that....
Can you help me out?

[Sebastian]

little more detail would be good. Max characters for what, subject?

[Aaron1]

Sorry i forgot to mention that, yes the subject, in this case: $row["title"] But i haven't got a clue how yet. So if you could help that would be great

[Aaron1]

I have got my pencil and paper ready, how do i do this?

[Aaron1]

My fingers are getting cramped holding the pencil
Nobody knows how?

[futureal]

Are you saying that you want a string to be no longer than a certain length?

I use a small addition like this in my forums to shrink usernames to show no more than 20 characters in the thread lists. Taking that as an example, you could do this:

PHP Code:

if (strlen($mystring) > 20)
  $mystring = substr($mystring, 0, 17) . "..."; 


In this case, the string "abcdefghijklmnopqrs" would pass through untouched, but the string "abcdefghijklmnopqrst" would become "abcdefghijklmnop..."

Does that make any sense? heh

[Aaron1]

Yes thats exactly what i wanted. Thanks!
So my string is this: $row["title"]

So the code for me would be like this?:

if (strlen($row["title"]) > 20)
$row["title"] = substr($row["title"], 0, 17) . "...";

I am doing something wrong i guess, because the above example doesn't work... Argh!

[Aaron1]

Let me give you the complete code:

-------------------------
$result = mysql_query("SELECT title, threadid, dateline FROM thread WHERE forumid NOT IN ('10','16')ORDER BY dateline DESC LIMIT 40");

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))

{
echo ".$row["title"]."\r\n";


}
-------------------------

I hope this helps