Use this tool to shorten or limit personal names to desired length, or to use initials instead of a full name.
Supports Unicode / UTF-8 names.

• limit / cap name length (with the aim to keep the name as legible as possible):

  | John Roland Reuel Tolkien |
  | --> John R. Reuel Tolkien |   # last name priority
  | -----> John R. R. Tolkien |
  | -------> J. R. R. Tolkien |
  | ---------> J.R.R. Tolkien |
  | -----------> John Tolkien |
  | ---------------> J.R.R.T. |
  | -------------------> JRRT |
  | ---------------------> JT |
  |                           | 
  | John Roland Reuel Tolkien |
  | John R. R. Tolkien <----- |   # first name priority
  | John R. R. T. <---------- |
  | John R.R.T. <------------ |
  | J.R.R.T. <--------------- |
  | JRRT <------------------- |
  | JT <--------------------- |
  

• shorten a name using initials for part of the name (no length constraint):

  John Roland Reuel Tolkien:
  
  - J. R. R. Tolkien
  - John R. R. T.
  

• create initials (configurable separator):

  - JRRT
  - J. R. R. T.
  

well i could not google out anything reasonable in well over 60 minutes so i decided to code it in less than that. how silly i was...

The features and the public interface are in place. The code is still ugly, don't fret. 🙊

I'm also deciding how to make it possible for a custom name parser to be provided on the fly/by configuration, so that special cases (like compound names) can easily be supported. Bear with me. 🐻

Supported:

• unicode names
• arbitrary length

What is not (yet) supported:

• compound surnames (sorry folks, this may come later)
• non-word characters will be lost
  • Bull, John
• academic and other titles
  • Bc. Foo Bar, Dr.Sc.
  • John Bull, Sr.
• other writing systems than latin (may the will work, i'm just not testing them)

You will need to handle these yourself before/after passing them through the shortener.

Limit (cap) names to desired lengths:

Shorts::cap('Pablo Escobar', 10); // "P. Escobar"
Shorts::cap('Pablo Escobar', 2); // "PE"

Shorts::cap('John Ronald Reuel Tolkien', 20); // "John R. R. Tolkien"
Shorts::cap('John Ronald Reuel Tolkien', 16); // "J. R. R. Tolkien"
Shorts::cap('John Ronald Reuel Tolkien', 15); // "J.R.R. Tolkien"
Shorts::cap('John Ronald Reuel Tolkien', 8);  // "J.R.R.T."
Shorts::cap('John Ronald Reuel Tolkien', 4);  // "JRRT"

The above will try to keep the last name legible, unless the limit is too strict.
Inverse version that will try to keep the first name legible is also available:

Shorts::cap('Pablo Escobar', 10, Shorts::FIRST_NAME); // "Pablo E."

Shrink names using initials except for the last name:

Shorts::shrink('John Ronald Reuel Tolkien'); // "J. R. R. Tolkien"
Shorts::shrink('Hugo Ventil');               // "H. Ventil"

Shrink names using initials except for the first name:

Shorts::shrink('John Ronald Reuel Tolkien', Shorts::FIRST_NAME); // "John R. R. T."
Shorts::shrink('Hugo Ventil', Shorts::FIRST_NAME);               // "Hugo V."

Create "short" initials:

Shorts::initials('John Ronald Reuel Tolkien'); // "JRRT"
Shorts::initials('Hugo Ventil');               // "HV"

... or "longer" version:

Shorts::initials('John Ronald Reuel Tolkien', '.', ' '); // "J. R. R. T."
Shorts::initials('Hugo Ventil', '.', ' ');               // "H. V."

Each of the static methods has a non-static counterpart:

Shorts::i()->limit( ... );      // Shorts::cap( ... )
Shorts::i()->reduce( ... );     // Shorts::shrink( ... )
Shorts::i()->toInitials( ... ); // Shorts::initials( ... )

Shorts also provides the ability co create a preconfigured formatter callable for each of the methods:

Shorts::i()->limiter( ... )
Shorts::i()->reducer( ... )
Shorts::i()->initialsFormatter( ... )

These can be used as follows:

$fmt = Shorts::i()->limiter(20); // will limit any input to 20 chars
$fmt('Foo Bar'); // this is equivalent to  Shorts::cap('Foo Bar', 20)

Note the formatters can come handy when defining filters for templating languages, like Twig or Latte.

$ composer test

... are always welcome. Many times it is useful to just point out a use case the author have not thought about or come across.

• include a name parser to split the names
  • https://github.com/joshfraser/PHP-Name-Parser
  • https://github.com/theiconic/name-parser
  • in fact i intend to provide a possibility to use your own explode/implode functions so that the tool is as flexible as possible