php: how to split up a really long string

Question

I am new to PHP and have a question.

I've made a chat-like application, it is working well but i can't seem to find exactly what i want to do in searching previous threads.

The user can input from a form field their $message. So...

$message = $_POST['message'];

The input box allows a maximum of 600 characters. Now if the user posts nothing but one long entire string that doesn't contain any white space, or spaces between any of the string characters.. short example..

ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

If it goes to a certain length, it causes the page to break by creating a horizontal scroll frame.

How can I take $message and filter it so that it will break this up? But also taking into account that most users are posting a real $message, and not to accidentally split up any valid words etc. maybe something that checks to see if one of the $message array elements is longer than xxx amount of characters long and if so break it up? Or what's the easiest way to go about this?

this sounds like a layout problem. would you rather split the string or fix the layout issue with css? — Jeff Lambert, Apr 22 '15 at 18:37
I'm open to any valid answer. im not much of a css guru either so any examples in either case would be appreciated — cjackson, Apr 22 '15 at 18:38

Pedro Lobito · Answer 1 · 2015-04-22T19:15:52.563

You should put the content of $message inside an element with a class set to break long lines (word-wrap: break-word):

i.e:

.php

<?php

if(isset($message = _$POST['message'])){
$message = _$POST['message'];

echo "<div class='message'>$message</div>

}

.css

.message {
  word-wrap: break-word;
/* Be VERY careful with this, breaks normal words */
  word-break: break-all;

-webkit-hyphens: auto;
   -moz-hyphens: auto;
        hyphens: auto;
}

The above works in Internet Explorer 8+, Firefox 6+, iOS 4.2, Safari 5.1+ and Chrome 13+.

CODEPEN DEMO

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 22 '15 at 19:11

0

Of course I found an answer online just after posting this. The answer is to put this into the body of my css:

overflow-x:hidden;
word-wrap: break-word;

edited Apr 22 '15 at 19:11

blurfus

13,485
8
55
61

answered Apr 22 '15 at 18:42

cjackson

93
8

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 22 '15 at 19:06

0

I think the simplest way

<?php
$f = 'ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff';
$row = 3;
$n = ceil(strlen($f) / $row);
for($i = 0; $i < $row; $i++){
    echo substr($f, 0, $n) . '<br/>';
}
?>

answered Apr 22 '15 at 19:06

zul

15
5

This is `css` problem, and you won't solve with your code. What will happen if the device is 320*240 and it's font set to Large++ ? – Pedro Lobito Apr 22 '15 at 19:18

php: how to split up a really long string

3 Answers3