When would you use this? The best example is a script that is requesting the user select a User Name between x and xx characters in length. This utility will ensure that the name input is exactly between those values. It is different than using the substring because the substring won't default on a minimum number of characters and you would have to write the length checking and length testing statements and conditionals and an error would cause a fault. Using this utility takes all that checking away and worry away. It simply returns a value that is within the specified parameters.

To call the script you pass it three variables. The input to be checked, the minimum number of characters and the maximum number of characters. Here are a few examples of calls to the program showing the input, the call and the output.

EX.1

$input = "jimbob";
$output = format_length($input, 5, 10);
$output will print out "jimbob";

EX.2

$input = "jimbob";
$output = format_length($input, 2, 4);
$output will print out "jimb";

EX.3

$input = "jimbob";
$output = format_length($input, 10, 15);
$output will print out "jimbobjimbob";

EX.4

$input = "jb";
$output = format_length($input, 5, 10);
$output will print out "jbjbjbjb";

NOTE: If you do not specify a minimum and or maximum number of characters, the utilities default setting is the number "6" for minimum and "10" for maximum.