Certain number of posts with certain excerpt length

Question

Could use some help... using this code to call up a custom number of posts from a certain categorey and only want to display the first 15 characters. However, it is showing the same excerpt on each post versus showing the unique excerpt for each post. Can anyone help me out on this one?

Code below is resulting in the same excerpt to be added to the posts, even though the correct title and thumbnails are displaying!

I'm a bit of a novice so if you can explain I'd gladly appreciate it!

<?php $posts = get_posts('category=3&orderby=date&numberposts=3'); foreach($posts as $post) { ?>
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" target="_parent">
<div class="aligncenter" style="display: block;">
<?php the_post_thumbnail( 'thumbnail', array( 'class' => 'img-responsive' ) ); ?>
</div>
<h3><?php the_title(); ?></h3></a>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<?php echo excerpt(15); ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" class="blue"" target="_parent">
Read More</a>
</div>
<?php } ?>

here is my functions.php

function excerpt($limit) {
$excerpt = explode(' ', get_the_excerpt(), $limit);
if (count($excerpt)>=$limit) {
array_pop($excerpt);
$excerpt = implode(" ",$excerpt).'...';
} else {
$excerpt = implode(" ",$excerpt);
}   
$excerpt = preg_replace('`\[[^\]]*\]`','',$excerpt);
return $excerpt;
}


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

Answer 1

If you are simply trying to echo the excerpt in a specific part of a theme, you can simply use the following code within the loop:

<?php 

    $excerpt = get_the_excerpt();
    echo substr( $excerpt, 0, 15 ) . '&hellip;';

?>

If you want to filter the excerpt globally (in archives, blog pages, etcetera) to match any post part of one or more given categories, you can place the following code in your theme's functions.php file:

<?php

    function wpse_225203_category_based_trim_excerpt( $excerpt ) {

        //Return if there is not a except to work with
        if ( '' === $excerpt ) :
            return $excerpt;
        endif;

        //Get the post's categories
        $categories = get_the_category();

        //Get the post's categories ID
        $categories_id = wp_list_pluck( $categories, 'term_id' );

        //Set the post's categories ID we want to match
        $categories_to_trim_ids = array( 1, 3 ); //Modify to match your ids

        //Match the wanted categories ids and the post's categories ids
        if ( ! array_intersect( $categories_to_trim_ids, $categories_id ) ) :
            return $excerpt;
        endif;

        //$excerpt = wp_trim_words( $excerpt, 15 ); //Trim the excerpt to the first 15 words
        $excerpt = substr( $excerpt, 0, 15 ) . '&hellip;'; //Trim the excerpt to the first 15 characters

        return $excerpt;

    }

    add_filter( 'get_the_excerpt', 'wpse_225203_category_based_trim_excerpt' );

?>

Answer 2

Put the following code in your functions.php

 function excerpt($limit) {
          $excerpt = explode(' ', get_the_excerpt(), $limit);
          if (count($excerpt)>=$limit) {
            array_pop($excerpt);
            $excerpt = implode(" ",$excerpt).'...';
          } else {
            $excerpt = implode(" ",$excerpt);
          } 
          $excerpt = preg_replace('`\[[^\]]*\]`','',$excerpt);
          return $excerpt;
        }

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

then in your template code you just use..

<?php echo excerpt(25); ?>

OR try this at your template

<?php 

    $excerpt = get_the_excerpt();
    echo substr( $excerpt, 0, 25);

?>