A smarter Wordpress excerpt.

nebula_the_excerpt.php

//Use this instead of the_excerpt(); and get_the_excerpt(); so we can have better control over the excerpt.
//Several ways to implement this:
	//Inside the loop (or outside the loop for current post/page): nebula_the_excerpt('Read more »', 20, 1);
	//Outside the loop: nebula_the_excerpt(572, 'Read more »', 20, 1);
function nebula_the_excerpt( $postID=0, $more=0, $length=55, $hellip=0 ) {
	if ( $postID && is_int($postID) ) {
		$the_post = get_post($postID);
	} else {
		if ( $postID != 0 || is_string($postID) ) {
			if ( $length == 0 || $length == 1 ) {
				$hellip = $length;
			} else {
				$hellip = false;
			}
			
			if ( is_int($more) ) {
				$length = $more;
			} else {
				$length = 55;
			}
			
			$more = $postID;
		}
		$postID = get_the_ID();
		$the_post = get_post($postID);
	}
	
	if ( $the_post->post_excerpt ) {
		$string = strip_tags(strip_shortcodes($the_post->post_excerpt), '');
	} else {
		$string = strip_tags(strip_shortcodes($the_post->post_content), '');
	}
	
	$string = string_limit_words($string, $length);
	
	if ( $hellip ) {
		if ( $string[1] == 1 ) {
			$string[0] .= '… ';
		}
	}
		
	if ( isset($more) && $more != '' ) {
		$string[0] .= ' <a class="nebula_the_excerpt" href="' . get_permalink($postID) . '">' . $more . '</a>';
	}
	
	return $string[0];
}

//Text limiter by words
function string_limit_words($string, $word_limit){
	$limited[0] = $string;
	$limited[1] = 0;
	$words = explode(' ', $string, ($word_limit + 1));
	if(count($words) > $word_limit){
		array_pop($words);
		$limited[0] = implode(' ', $words);
		$limited[1] = 1;
	}
	return $limited;
}