Truncate text to x number of words

This post was published 9 years 7 months 6 days ago. There is a chance that some APIs or software versions discussed have changed since this article was written.

This code will truncate given text to a certain length, adding “…” where it’s been truncated. For example:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Quisque ac urna a erat pharetra placerat. Sed at tortor id lacus pellentesque malesuada. Suspendisse vitae dui vel velit tincidunt aliquet. Cras condimentum lobortis leo. Integer semper. Nunc semper felis a neque malesuada posuere. Quisque convallis dolor sed erat. Mauris tellus. Nulla vestibulum diam sed felis. Aenean mi orci, fringilla at, vulputate dapibus, cursus ut, sem.

Would be turned into:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Quisque ac…

Shorten text
 $shortened_text_num ) {
        $shortened_text .= "... ";
    }
    return strip_tags($shortened_text);

}
?>

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