Limit number of characters to display from a MySQL query

I am barely a hack when it comes to PHP so please forgive my terminology:

I am getting a row from a MySql Database and displaying several fields. One of the fields is text and I would like to display only the first 50 characters in the field.

How in the world can I do this?

I am currently using this:

But it displays the whole text. I just want the first 50 characters or so.

Thanks for the help.

 

<?= substr($rs->fields['text'], 0, 50); ?>

PHP:

www.php.net/substr

 

WOW! Thanks. I would have never found that.

 

Personally I would do it on a sql level as long as you dont need all the data at any time in the script. It reduces a little of the processing time (usually) and also eliminates the extra data from hitting php at all.

$query = "SELECT SUBSTR(title,0,50), other columns... FROM database ....";

PHP:

 

You can use LEFT instead of SUBSTR

$query = "SELECT LEFT(text,50) FROM table";

You can also add a string to the end to signify that you cut off the text and there is actually more. Something like '...'

This is what I am selecting from my table. I only...

$query = "SELECT CONCAT(LEFT(text,50),'...') FROM table";

Heres a whole list of MySQL 5.0 string functions (LEFT & CONCAT work in 4.1):

hxxp://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/string-functions.html

hxxp://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/string-functions.html

 

I am guessing that both of these ease resources?

btw ... green for everyone!