Reply To: Truncating a custom field content based on CHARACTER count

• dkeeling

• March 18, 2015 at 2:19 am

Rather than use wp_trim_words(), you could use PHP’s substr() like this:

function project_excerpt() {
  global $post;
  $text = get_field('project_description');
  if ( '' != $text ) {
    $text = strip_shortcodes( $text );
    $text = apply_filters('the_content', $text);
    $text = str_replace(']]>', ']]>>', $text);
    $text_length = strlen($text); // Get text length (characters)
    $excerpt_length = 50;  // 50 desired characters
    $excerpt_more = '...';
    
    // Shorten the text
    $text = substr($text, 0, $excerpt_length);
    
    // If the text is more than 50 characters, append $excerpt_more
    if ($text_length > $excerpt_length) {
      $text .= $excerpt_more;
    } 

  }
  return apply_filters('the_excerpt', $text);
}