I suggest changing the function suggested by Guru Evi slightly. I found that it doesn't work as written here.

Original:
function add_3dots($string,$repl,$start,$limit) {
   if(strlen($string) > $limit) {
       return substr_replace(strip_tags($string),$repl,$start,$limit);
   } else {
       return $string;
   };
};

I suggest:
function add_3dots($string,$repl,$limit) {
       if(strlen($string) > $limit) {
           return substr_replace(strip_tags($string),$repl,$limit-strlen($repl));
       } else {
           return $string;
       }
    }

Usage:

$max_length=10;//the max number of characters you want to display
$too_long_string="BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH etc.";//the string you want to shorten (if it's longer than the $limit)
$shorter_string=add_3_dots($too_long_string,"...",$max_length);