Displaying Only the first x words of a string in rails

Question

<%= message.content %>

I can display a message like this, but in some situations I would like to display only the first 5 words of the st

Answer 1

you can use truncate to limit length of string

truncate("Once upon a time in a world far far away", :length => 17, :separator => ' ')
# => "Once upon a..."

with given space separator it won't cut your words.

If you want exactly 5 words you can do something like this

class String
  def words_limit(limit)
    string_arr = self.split(' ')
    string_arr.count > limit ? "#{string_arr[0..(limit-1)].join(' ')}..." : self
  end
end
text = "aa bb cc dd ee ff"
p text.words_limit(3)
# => aa bb cc...

Answer 2

Try the following:

'this is a line of some words'.split[0..3].join(' ')
=> "this is a line" 

Answer 3

In rails 4.2 you can use truncate_words.

'Once upon a time in a world far far away'.truncate_words(4)
=> "Once upon a time..."

Answer 4

   # Message helper
   def content_excerpt(c)
     return unlessc
     c.split(" ")[0..4].join + "..."
   end

   # View
   <%= message.content_excerpt %>

But the common way is truncate method

   # Message helper
   def content_excerpt(c)
     return unless c
     truncate(c, :length => 20)
   end