take the first x letter php code example
Example 1: php get first 5 characters of string
$result = substr("Hello How are you", 0, 5); //first 5 chars "Hello"
Example 2: get first word from string php
function getFirstWord($string)
{
$arr = explode(' ', trim($string));
return isset($arr[0]) ? $arr[0] : $string;
}