Function to display a Wordpress string (e.g. post title or content) with a max number of characters.

WordpressShortContent.php

<?php

  	function short_content($content,$limit) {
	
		$content = strip_tags(html_entity_decode($content, ENT_QUOTES, "UTF-8"));  
		
		// when the content is longer then $limit, show three dots at the end 
		if(strlen($content) >= ($limit+3)) {
		
			$content = substr($content, 0, $limit) . '...'; 
		
		}
		
		echo $content;
	
	}
	
	// Usage:
	short_content(get_the_title($post->ID), 50); // Short title
	short_content(get_post_field('post_content', $post->ID), 50); // Short content	

?>