# Truncate Bug?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/truncate-bug/149073>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [September 20, 2008, 12:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/truncate-bug/149073 "2008-09-20T00:33:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Sav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sav)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 12:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/truncate-bug/149073/1 "2008-09-20T00:33:40Z")

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Any idea why the truncate() function returns the wrong number of  
characters when using HTML as the 3rd (truncate\_string) parameter?..

\<%= truncate(body, 100) %\>  
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Donec risus  
ipsum, accumsan ut, consecte…

\<%= truncate(body, 100, ’ +’) %\>  
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Donec risus  
ipsum, accumsan ut, consecte +

\<%= truncate(body, 100, ’ more…’) %\>  
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit more…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Sav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sav)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 7:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/truncate-bug/149073/2 "2008-09-21T07:06:15Z")

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The truncate method includes the length of that parameter as part of  
the maximum length. Here’s the documentation and source:  
[http://github.com/rails/rails/tree/master/actionpack/lib/action\_view/helpers/text\_helper.rb#L71](http://github.com/rails/rails/tree/master/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/text_helper.rb#L71)

-Dan M.  
[http://www.dcmanges.com/blog](http://www.dcmanges.com/blog)