help with strip_tags and strlen

I'm trying to trim a html text to an exact lenght.
I'm ussing strip_tags and strlen on the front page of jabulela.com but the text length is not always the same.
How to trim to an exact lenght?
do you know any snippets ?

 

can you give your code. it may be modified to meet ur need.

 

this is the code

function truncate($string, $len, $wordsafe = FALSE, $dots = FALSE) {

$string = strip_tags ($string, '<em><strong><b><u><i>');
//$len = $len + (16 * substr_count($string, '<strong>')) + (8 * substr_count($string, '<em>')) + (6 * substr_count($string, '<b>'))+ (6 * substr_count($string, '<i>'));

  if (drupal_strlen($string) <= $len) {
    return $string;
  }

  if ($dots) {
    $len -= 4;
  }

  if ($wordsafe) {
    $string = drupal_substr($string, 0, $len + 1); // leave one more character
    if ($last_space = strrpos($string, ' ')) { // space exists AND is not on position 0
      $string = substr($string, 0, $last_space);
    }
    else {
      $string = drupal_substr($string, 0, $len);
    }
  }
  else {
    $string = drupal_substr($string, 0, $len);
  }

  if ($dots) {
    $string .= ' ...';
  }

  $string = _filter_htmlcorrector($string); // closes open tags
  
  return $string;
}

PHP:

drupal_substr is

function drupal_substr($text, $start, $length = NULL) {
  global $multibyte;
  if ($multibyte == UNICODE_MULTIBYTE) {
    return $length === NULL ? mb_substr($text, $start) : mb_substr($text, $start, $length);
  }
  else {
    $strlen = strlen($text);
    // Find the starting byte offset
    $bytes = 0;
    if ($start > 0) {
      // Count all the continuation bytes from the start until we have found
      // $start characters
      $bytes = -1; $chars = -1;
      while ($bytes < $strlen && $chars < $start) {
        $bytes++;
        $c = ord($text[$bytes]);
        if ($c < 0x80 || $c >= 0xC0) {
          $chars++;
        }
      }
    }
    else if ($start < 0) {
      // Count all the continuation bytes from the end until we have found
      // abs($start) characters
      $start = abs($start);
      $bytes = $strlen; $chars = 0;
      while ($bytes > 0 && $chars < $start) {
        $bytes--;
        $c = ord($text[$bytes]);
        if ($c < 0x80 || $c >= 0xC0) {
          $chars++;
        }
      }
    }
    $istart = $bytes;

    // Find the ending byte offset
    if ($length === NULL) {
      $bytes = $strlen - 1;
    }
    else if ($length > 0) {
      // Count all the continuation bytes from the starting index until we have
      // found $length + 1 characters. Then backtrack one byte.
      $bytes = $istart; $chars = 0;
      while ($bytes < $strlen && $chars < $length) {
        $bytes++;
        $c = ord($text[$bytes]);
        if ($c < 0x80 || $c >= 0xC0) {
          $chars++;
        }
      }
      $bytes--;
    }
    else if ($length < 0) {
      // Count all the continuation bytes from the end until we have found
      // abs($length) characters
      $length = abs($length);
      $bytes = $strlen - 1; $chars = 0;
      while ($bytes >= 0 && $chars < $length) {
        $c = ord($text[$bytes]);
        if ($c < 0x80 || $c >= 0xC0) {
          $chars++;
        }
        $bytes--;
      }
    }
    $iend = $bytes;

    return substr($text, $istart, max(0, $iend - $istart + 1));
  }
}

PHP:

 

oh man...I love Drupal code

 

thanks. I dropped wordpress for drupal, and I'm glad.