Shorten the title length

Question

So I'm using this filter in order to shorten the title:

function the_titlesmall($before = '', $after = '', $echo = true, $length = false) { $title = get_the_title();

if ( $length && is_numeric($length) ) {
    $title = substr( $title, 0, $length );
}

if ( strlen($title)> 0 ) {
    $title = apply_filters('the_titlesmall', $before . $title . $after, $before, $after);
    if ( $echo )
        echo $title;
    else
        return $title;
}
}

and in my template:

 <?php the_titlesmall('', '...', true, '50') ?>

This works like a charm.

However, this filter adds "..." to every post title, even if the post title is under "50" characters and it looks weird. How can I only add the "..." to the titles that are over "50" characters?

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Try this. First check if the original string length is less than or equal to passed in length, and if so, we ignore the $after parameter :

function the_titlesmall($before = '', $after = '', $echo = true, $length = false) { $title = get_the_title();
    if( strlen($title) <= $length )
         $after = '';
    if ( $length && is_numeric($length) ) {
        $title = substr( $title, 0, $length );
    }

    if ( strlen($title)> 0 ) {
        $title = apply_filters('the_titlesmall', $before . $title . $after, $before, $after);
        if ( $echo )
            echo $title;
        else
            return $title;
    }

}

Answer 2

Instead of having it be an "after" variable, add the ... where you are cutting the substring. Check the length of the string first, and if it's greater than 50, add ... when you cut the substring, in that line.