Justify (similar to HTML align="justify") a string, without looping

justify.func.php

// Answer to http://stackoverflow.com/a/11059923/1210983
function justify($str, $maxlen) {
    $str = trim($str);

    $strlen = strlen($str);
    if ($strlen >= $maxlen) {
        $str = wordwrap($str, $maxlen);
        $str = explode("\n", $str);
        $str = $str[0];
        $strlen = strlen($str);
    }

    $space_count = substr_count($str, ' ');
    if ($space_count === 0) {
        return str_pad($str, $maxlen, ' ', STR_PAD_BOTH);
    }

    $extra_spaces_needed = $maxlen - $strlen;
    $total_spaces = $extra_spaces_needed + $space_count;

    $space_string_avg_length = $total_spaces / $space_count;
    $short_string_multiplier = floor($space_string_avg_length);
    $long_string_multiplier = ceil($space_string_avg_length);

    $short_fill_string = str_repeat(' ', $short_string_multiplier);
    $long_fill_string = str_repeat(' ', $long_string_multiplier);

    $limit = ($space_string_avg_length - $short_string_multiplier) * $space_count;

    $words_split_by_long = explode(' ', $str, $limit+1);
    $words_split_by_short = $words_split_by_long[$limit];
    $words_split_by_short = str_replace(' ', $short_fill_string, $words_split_by_short);
    $words_split_by_long[$limit] = $words_split_by_short;

    $result = implode($long_fill_string, $words_split_by_long);

    return $result;
}