Better Truncate Function

truncate.php

function truncate( $string, $length, $when = 'before', $append = NULL ) {
    
    if( strlen( $string ) <= $length ) return $string;
    
    $append = ( strlen( $append ) ? $append : '...' );
    
    if( $when == 'center' ) $append = sprintf( ' %s ', trim( $append ) );
    
    // ---------------
    
    if( $when == 'before' ) {

        return substr(

            $string, 0,

            strrpos( substr( $string, 0, $length ), ' ' )

        ) . $append;
    }
   
    if( $when == 'after' ) {

        return substr(

            $string, 0,

            ( strpos( substr( $string, $length ),' ' ) + $length )

        ) . $append;
    }
   
    if( $when == 'center' ) {
    
        $start = round( $length / 2 );

        $start = strlen(

            substr( $string, 0,

                ( strpos( substr( $string, $start ), ' ' ) + $start )
            )
        );
    
        $end = ( $start - strlen( $append ) );

        $end = strlen(

            substr( $string, 0,

                strrpos( substr( $string, $start + strlen( $append ) ), ' ' )

            )
        );
    
        return substr(

            $string, 0, $start ) . $append .

            substr( $string, ( strlen( $string ) - $end )
        );
    }
    
    return FALSE;
}