How to Extract a Specific Number of Words from a String in PHP?

Extracting the Initial Words of a String

Problem: Limit textual content by extracting only a specified number of words from a string.

Solution: Utilize the following approach:

Using implode() and array_slice()

<code class="php">implode(' ', array_slice(explode(' ', $sentence), 0, 10));</code>

• Split the string into an array of words using explode().
• Slice the array to retain only the desired number of words (in this case, 10).
• Join the sliced array back into a string using implode().

Using preg_match() for Enhanced Word-Breaking Customization

<code class="php">function get_words($sentence, $count = 10) {
  preg_match("/(?:\w+(?:\W+|$)){0,$count}/", $sentence, $matches);
  return $matches[0];
}</code>

• This function utilizes regular expressions to match groups of word characters (w ) that may be interspersed with non-word characters (W ) or the end of the line ($).
• The {0,$count} quantifier restricts matches to the desired number of words.
• The function returns the matching words as a single string.

UTF-8/Unicode Handling

PHP's built-in functions may not handle UTF-8/Unicode characters optimally. To address this:

• Replace w with ¹ for word characters.
• Replace W with [s,.;?!] for non-word characters.

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1. s,.;?! ↩

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