Crop a text to a specific word count.

text-cropper.php

<?php
/**
 * Crop a text to a specific word count
 *
 * @author  Mauricio Gelves <yo@maugelves.com>
 * @param   $text_to_trim string
 * @param   $wordcount    int
 * @param   $final        string Which string do you want to add at the final of the trimmed text?
 * @return  string
 */
function text_cropper($text_to_trim, $wordcount, $final = '…') {
    
    // Check parameters
    if( empty( $text_to_trim ) || empty( $wordcount ) || !is_numeric( $wordcount ) ) return false;
    
    // Variables
    $trimed = '';

    $text = str_replace("  ", " ", $text_to_trim);
    $string = explode(" ", $text);

    // Check the text has more words than the required
    if( count($string) <= $wordcount ) return $text_to_trim;

    for ( $wordCounter = 0; $wordCounter < $wordcount; $wordCounter++ ){
        $trimed .= $string[$wordCounter];
        if ( $wordCounter + 1 < $wordcount ){ $trimed .= " "; }
    }

    $trimed .= $final;

    return $trimed;
    
}