Limiting chars for a content - php

Question

I have content, in which I'm trying to limit using this query:
if(strlen($news_content < 35)){
$news_content = substr($news_content, 0, 30) . "";
}
But for some reason, it isn't limiting the chars.. Or It's my coding(which I'm sure is why it's not working) that's off a bit.
here's the full code:
<?php
$amount_get = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM comment WHERE articleid='" . mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['id']) . "'");
$comments = mysql_num_rows($amount_get);
$grab = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM articles WHERE id='" . mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['id']) . "' LIMIT 1");
$grab = mysql_query("SELECT id, news_title, news_content, news_author, news_day, news_month, news_year, news_date FROM articles ORDER BY id DESC limit 3");
$news_day =$row['news_day'];
$news_month =$row['news_month'];
$news_year =$row['news_year'];
$news_content =$row['news_content'];
if(strlen($news_content < 35)){
$news_content = substr($news_content, 0, 30) . "";
}
elseif (mysql_num_rows($grab)==0) {
echo "<div class='alert alert-note-x'>Sorry, it looks like their are no articles posted!</div>";
}
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($grab)){
?>
<div class="post-container">
<div class="post">
<div class="left">
<div class="date"><span class="day"><?php echo $row['news_day'] ?></span> <span class="month"><?php echo $row['news_month'] ?></span> <span class="year"><?php echo $row['news_year'] ?></span></div></div>
<div class="postcontent"><h5 class="posttitle"><?php echo stripslashes($row['news_title']); ?></h5>
<?php echo $row['news_content'] ?>
<p> (READ MORE)</p>
<p>Comments (<?php echo $comments ?>)</p>
</div>
</div>​
</div>
I'm simply trying to limit the "news_content", but I don't know where it is that I'm messing up at. Thanks!

Answer 1

Try changing the first line from:
if(strlen($news_content < 35)) {...}
To:
if(strlen($news_content) > 35) {
That includes switching the < to > , as presumably you want to truncate if it's longer than 35 characters rather than less ?
I think generally there are better ways to truncate though. Your approach could just cut text off in the middle of a word abruptly. Have a look at http://www.the-art-of-web.com/php/truncate/#.UNEbnmdaerI or http://www.ambrosite.com/blog/truncate-long-titles-to-the-nearest-whole-word-using-php-strrpos for other ideas.

Answer 2

In the html code you don't reference <?php echo $news_content?>, but <?php echo $row['news_content']?>, thus ignoring the shortened version.
Combine that with the proposed change to change the strlen($row['news_content']) < 35 to > 35 to get it working.

Answer 3

Following should work:
if (strlen($news_content) < 35))