WordPress - The best way to get_the_excerpt with character limit

gistfile1.txt

// Source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/10173268

function get_the_excerpt_with_characters_limit($text, $length) {
  // Don't cut if too short
  if (strlen($text) < $length + 10) {
    return $text;
  }
  // Find next space after desired length
  $break_pos = strpos($text, ' ', $length);
  $visible = substr($text, 0, $break_pos);
  return balanceTags($visible) . " …";
}

// example usage:
echo get_the_excerpt_with_characters_limit(get_the_excerpt(get_the_id()), 160);