How to properly show the Excerpt only if it exists?

Question

I have the following two functions in my theme:

function content($limit) {
     global $post;
      $content = explode(' ', get_the_content(), $limit);
      if (count($content)>=$limit) {
        array_pop($content);
        $content = implode(" ",$content);
$content = wp_strip_all_tags($content, true);
      } else {
        $content = implode(" ",$content);
      } 
      $content = preg_replace('/\[.+\]/','', $content);
      $content = apply_filters('the_content', $content); 
      $content = str_replace(']]>', ']]>', $content);
      return $content;
    }

function contentnoimg($limit) {
     global $post;
      $content = explode(' ', get_the_content(), $limit);
      if (count($content)>=$limit) {
        array_pop($content);
        $content = implode(" ",$content);
$content = wp_strip_all_tags($content, true);
      } else {
        $content = implode(" ",$content);
      }   
      $content = preg_replace('/(<img.+?>)/','', $content);
      $content = apply_filters('the_content', $content); 
      $content = str_replace(']]>', ']]&gt;', $content);
      return $content;
    }

And in the loop, it is called this way:

<?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) {
the_post_thumbnail( 'full', array('class'=>'post_thumbnail_common', 'alt' => get_the_title() , 'title' => get_the_title(), 'itemprop'=>'image' ));
echo contentnoimg(41);} else { echo content(41); } ?>

I would like the site to show the_excerpt(); only if it exists. If has_excerpt() is negative, then it should work as it is right now showing the content of get_the_content()

How should the code look like? I tried different ways, but my site stops working, so I am doing something wrong.

Answer 1

This works. You probably just had a syntax error.

function content( $limit ) {
    global $post;

    if( has_excerpt() ){
        $content = the_excerpt();
    } else {
      $content = explode( ' ', get_the_content(), $limit );
      if ( count($content) >= $limit ) {
        array_pop( $content );
        $content = implode( " ", $content );
        $content = wp_strip_all_tags( $content, true );
      } else {
        $content = implode( " ", $content );
      }

      $content = preg_replace( '/\[.+\]/','', $content );
      $content = apply_filters( 'the_content', $content ); 
      $content = str_replace( ']]>', ']]>', $content );
    }

    return $content;
}