Insert a linefeed after so many characters. Generally used to force a block of text not to extend past a certain number of characters. By default it will insert a linefeed at each 75 characters.

A typical use is to wrap the text in an email message body.

$text = "My tux was at the cleaners. My car broke down. I couldn’t get a cab. There was an earthquake. An enormous flood! It’s not my fault!";
 
echo wordwrap($text, 25);
/*
My tux was at the
cleaners. My car broke
down. I couldn’t get a
cab. There was an
earthquake. An enormous
flood! It’s not my fault!
*/
 
// Specify the break parameter:
// <br> is useful for HTML output,
// or use anything for instant comic gold!
 
echo wordwrap($text, 25, " MONKEY ");
/*
My tux was at the MONKEY cleaners. My car broke MONKEY down. I couldn’t get a MONKEY cab. There was an MONKEY earthquake. An enormous MONKEY flood! It’s not my fault!
*/

As you can see by that last example, wordwrap(), while commonly and by default used to wrap text, in truth inserts a string at a certain points in a string of text.

Set the fourth parameter to TRUE in order to force the break should a line contain no white space before the number of characters is met

$text = "I know how to spell onomatopoeia";
 
echo wordwrap($text, 7, "\n");
/*
I know
how to
spell
onomatopoeia
*/
 
echo wordwrap($text, 7, "\n", true);
/*
I know
how to
spell
onomato
poeia
*/
See the manual entry for wordwrap()
Originally posted 2009-01-15