truncating text 2

[shamrox]

Ok, I'm blanking here. What is the code that shortens a line of text from a database record if it's to long. example:
record is "This is what the text actually is."
output to screen would be "This is what..."


so I tell it I only want the first 20 characters or so...I know it's simple, I just can't recall it.

Thanks.

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[Chacalinc]

select id,CONCAT(SUBSTRING(long_text_col,1,YY),'...') from table where col='foo'

where YY = lenght in chars.

example:

field long_text is: "This is what the text actually is."

select id,CONCAT(SUBSTRING(long_text_col,1,11),'...') from table where col='foo'

result: "This is what..."

Take a look to:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/String_functions.html

 

[DRJ478]

However, you will end up with something like this when the text is short:
This is short....

It might be advantageous to add the ellipsis in PHP after retrieving the data from the database. That way you can make clear cases for short/exact/long text.

 

[KarveR]

you could check the length of the string and truncate only when needed.

select if(length(long_text_col) > 10,CONCAT(SUBSTRING(long_text_col,1,11),'...'),CONCAT(long_text_col,'...'));

basically: if its longer than 10 character, chop and add ... otherwise just add ...

clear ?

______________________________________________________________________
There's no present like the time, they say. - Henry's Cat.

 

[KarveR]

clarify a little more..

select if(length(long_text_col) > 10,CONCAT(SUBSTRING(long_text_col,1,11),'...'),CONCAT(long_text_col,'...')) FROM table WHERE stuff etc ... ;

______________________________________________________________________
There's no present like the time, they say. - Henry's Cat.