[php] How to set character limit on the_content() and the_excerpt() in wordpress

How do I set a character limit on the_content() and the_excerpt() in wordpress? I have only found solutions for the word limit - I want to be able to set an exact amount characters of outputted.

I know this post is a bit old, but thought I would add the functions I use that take into account any filters and any <![CDATA[some stuff]]> content you want to safely exclude.

Simply add to your functions.php file and use anywhere you would like, such as:

content(53);

or

excerpt(27);

Enjoy!

//limit excerpt
function excerpt($limit) {
  $excerpt = explode(' ', get_the_excerpt(), $limit);
  if (count($excerpt)>=$limit) {
    array_pop($excerpt);
    $excerpt = implode(" ",$excerpt).'...';
  } else {
    $excerpt = implode(" ",$excerpt);
  } 
  $excerpt = preg_replace('`\[[^\]]*\]`','',$excerpt);
  return $excerpt;
}

//limit content 
function content($limit) {
  $content = explode(' ', get_the_content(), $limit);
  if (count($content)>=$limit) {
    array_pop($content);
    $content = implode(" ",$content).'...';
  } else {
    $content = implode(" ",$content);
  } 
  $content = preg_replace('/\[.+\]/','', $content);
  $content = apply_filters('the_content', $content); 
  $content = str_replace(']]>', ']]>', $content);
  return $content;
}

Or even easier and without the need to create a filter: use PHP's mb_strimwidth to truncate a string to a certain width (length). Just make sure you use one of the get_ syntaxes. For example with the content:

<?php $content = get_the_content(); echo mb_strimwidth($content, 0, 400, '...');?>

This will cut the string at 400 characters and close it with .... Just add a "read more"-link to the end by pointing to the permalink with get_permalink().

<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>">Read more </a>

Of course you could also build the read more in the first line. Than just replace '...' with '<a href="' . get_permalink() . '">[Read more]</a>'

wp_trim_words This function trims text to a certain number of words and returns the trimmed text.

Example:-

echo wp_trim_words( get_the_content(), 40, '...' );

wp_trim_words() This function trims text to a certain number of words and returns the trimmed text.

$excerpt = wp_trim_words( get_the_content(), 40, '<a href="'.get_the_permalink().'">More Link</a>');

Get truncated string with specified width using mb_strimwidth() php function.

$excerpt = mb_strimwidth( strip_tags(get_the_content()), 0, 100, '...' );

Using add_filter() method of WordPress on the_content filter hook.

add_filter( "the_content", "limit_content_chr" );
function limit_content_chr( $content ){
    if ( 'post' == get_post_type() ) {
        return mb_strimwidth( strip_tags($content), 0, 100, '...' );
    } else {
        return $content;
    }
}

Using custom php function to limit content characters.

function limit_content_chr( $content, $limit=100 ) {
    return mb_strimwidth( strip_tags($content), 0, $limit, '...' );
}

// using above function in template tags
echo limit_content_chr( get_the_content(), 50 );

For Using the_content() functions (for displaying the main content of the page)

$content = get_the_content();

echo substr($content, 0, 100);

For Using the_excerpt() functions (for displaying the excerpt-short content of the page)

$excerpt= get_the_excerpt();

echo substr($excerpt, 0, 100);

just to help, if any one want to limit post length at home page .. then can use below code to do that..

the below code is simply a modification of @bfred.it Sir

add_filter("the_content", "break_text");

function limit_text($text){

  if(is_front_page())
  {
    $length = 250;
    if(strlen($text)<$length+10) return $text; //don't cut if too short
    $break_pos = strpos($text, ' ', $length); //find next space after desired length
    $visible = substr($text, 0, $break_pos);
    return balanceTags($visible) . "... <a href='".get_permalink()."'>read more</a>";
  }else{
    return $text;
  }

}

This also balances HTML tags so that they won't be left open and doesn't break words.

add_filter("the_content", "break_text");
function break_text($text){
    $length = 500;
    if(strlen($text)<$length+10) return $text;//don't cut if too short

    $break_pos = strpos($text, ' ', $length);//find next space after desired length
    $visible = substr($text, 0, $break_pos);
    return balanceTags($visible) . " […]";
} 

Replace <?php the_content();?> by the code below

<?php
$char_limit = 100; //character limit
$content = $post->post_content; //contents saved in a variable
echo substr(strip_tags($content), 0, $char_limit);
?>

php substr() function refrence

php strip_tags() function refrence

<?php 
echo apply_filters( 'woocommerce_short_description', substr($post->post_excerpt, 0, 500) ) 
?>