Excerpt using Read More Tag

Question

How do I get the excerpt of a post that is using a Read More Tag? The documentation states that I should use the the_content function, but I don't want that. I just want the text. Furthermore, I don't want the Read More link automatically inserted into the same paragraph tag - I just want the text, and I'll create my own Read More link. Essentially, I'm trying to print the excerpt of a post without the read more link. Can I do that?

Answer 1

You just need to set the first argument of the_content() to an empty string:

<?php the_content( '' ); ?>

If you don't pass an argument it will use the default, which is a link with the text "(more…)", but by passing an empty string, the empty string (i.e. nothing) gets displayed instead.

If you want it in a variable, use get_the_content( '' ) in the same way, but for formatting to match properly you'll need to apply the the_content filter:

$excerpt = apply_filters( 'the_content', get_the_content( '' ) );