PHP: Limit Length

This isn't my code, so I'm wondering how I can limit the title to a certain length of characters (it's a news grabber).
[code]$items = 0;
$time = split(" ", microtime());

srand((double)microtime()*1000000);
$cache_time_rnd = 300 - rand(0, 600);

if ( (!(file_exists($cache_file))) || ((filectime($cache_file) + $cache_time - $time[1]) + $cache_time_rnd < 0) || (!(filesize($cache_file))) ) {

$fpread = fopen($backend, 'r');
if(!$fpread) {
// echo "$errstr ($errno)
\n";
// exit;
} else {

$fpwrite = fopen($cache_file, 'w');
if(!$fpwrite) {
// echo "$errstr ($errno)
\n";
// exit;
} else {

while(! feof($fpread) ) {

$buffer = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));

if ($buffer == "%%") {

$title = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));
$link = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));
$date = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));
$time = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));
$submit_handle = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));
$submit_email = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));




if (($title != "") && ($items < $max_items)) {

fputs($fpwrite, "$link_prefix<A HREF=\"http://www.url.com$link\" TARGET=\"$target\">$title</A>$link_postfix");
$items++;
}
}
}

}
fclose($fpread);
}
fclose($fpwrite);
}
if (file_exists($cache_file)) {
include($cache_file);
}[/code]

Take a look at the substr() function in the PHP manual. It will do what you want.

edit: Nevermind. Finally got it doing what I wanted it to do.