I'm trying to return only the first 200 characters (if there are more than that) from a body field in a Drupal custom module. I've found the general php/mysql solution here:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2080860/mysql-sql-retrieve-first-40-characters-of-a-text-field
But when I try to implement it with my SQL query in my custom module it doesn't work (ie. it still returns over 200 characters). Here's my code (see the field I used LEFT() on is LEFT(fdb.body_value, 200) on line 6):
$result = db_query(
"SELECT n.title, n.nid, n.status,
fdfty.field_type_value, fdfi.entity_id,
fdfi.field_icon_fid, fm.uri, fm.fid, ua.pid,
ua.alias, el.field_experience_level_value,
**LEFT(fdb.body_value, 200)**,
fdfr.field_role_value, fdft.field_topics_value,
fdfed.field_event_dates_value,
fdfed.field_event_dates_value2
FROM {node} AS n
LEFT JOIN {field_data_field_type} AS fdfty
ON n.nid=fdfty.entity_id
LEFT JOIN {field_data_field_icon} AS fdfi
ON n.nid=fdfi.entity_id
LEFT JOIN {file_managed} AS fm
ON fdfi.field_icon_fid=fm.fid
LEFT JOIN {url_alias} AS ua
ON n.nid=ua.pid
LEFT JOIN {field_data_field_experience_level} AS el
ON n.nid=el.entity_id
LEFT JOIN {field_data_body} AS fdb
ON n.nid=fdb.entity_id
LEFT JOIN {field_data_field_role} AS fdfr
ON n.nid=fdfr.entity_id
LEFT JOIN {field_data_field_topics} AS fdft
ON n.nid=fdft.entity_id
LEFT JOIN {field_data_field_event_dates} AS fdfed
ON n.nid=fdfed.entity_id
WHERE n.status=:status AND n.type=:resource
AND (fdfty.field_type_value=:webinar OR fdfty.field_type_value=:conference) AND el.field_experience_level_value=:level
AND fdfr.field_role_value=:role
AND fdft.field_topics_value=:topic
AND ((fdfed.field_event_dates_value IS NULL)
OR (fdfed.field_event_dates_value >= CURRENT_DATE()))
GROUP BY n.nid, n.title
ORDER BY fdfed.field_event_dates_value",
array(':status' => '1', ':resource' => 'resource',
':webinar' => 'Webinar', ':conference' => 'Conference', ':level' => $level, ':role' =>
$role, ':topic' => $topic));
