I cannot limit text with Japanese characters

Question

I’m trying to limit the text "in Japanese" that will be displayed in some places on the page, it doesn’t seem that php can handle this type of character well.

Example of php:

echo substr("あ え い う お", 0, 3);

Here shows only "あ" and, should show "あ え い", ie 3 characters.

So I tried with css:

style="overflow: Hidden; width:105px;"

in this case it simply ignores and does not limit anything, where all text with Japanese characters goes to the screen.

Answer 1

Functions of string

You are using the wrong function. The function substr is for use with 1 encodings byte by character, as ISO-8859-1.

The functions to multibyte has the prefix mb_.

Right:

echo mb_substr("あえいうお", 0, 3);

See working on IDEONE.

The same thing goes for mb_strlen, and most other string functions.

About the overflow

If you do not avoid line breaking, the Hidden in itself does not solve.

See an example that works:

Com quebra de linha:
<div style="overflow: hidden; width:105px; border:1px solid red;">
それは隠されていました</div>
Sem quebra de linha:
<div style="overflow: hidden; width:105px; border:1px solid red; white-space:nowrap;">
それは隠されていました</div>