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.