Triming specific number of words before &

so you want to do something like...

Stuff on page: Hello world my name is paul and i really like computers. I just finished cutting the grass, its is really hot where i live...

you input "finished"

your want outputed: ...name is paul and i really like computers. I just finished cutting the grass, its is really hot where i live... 

I think its inStr which returns the position of the keyword, IE

strKeyword = "finished"
intCharacterPositionOfKeyWord = inStr(strEntireLine,strKeyword)

Might return for example 50.   I think the easiest way then would be to do a simple loop, going through each character of the sentence one way then the other, and everytime it comes accross a space bar it adds one to the counter, then the loop terminates when its hit 10 spaces, if that makes sense!  Coz im bored and feeling nice ill do an example:

strKeyword = "finished" strSentence = "Hello world my name is paul and i really like computers. I just finished cutting the grass, its is really hot where i live" intPositionToStartFrom = inStr(strEntireLine,strKeyword) If intPositionToStartFrom <> 0 then   intCharLoopCount = intPositionToStartFrom   'Get the right 10 words   Do until intWordcount = 10     If mid(strEntireLine,intCharLoopCount,1) = " " then       intWordCount = intWordCount + 1     end if     strToTheRight10Words = strToTheRight10Words + (mid(strEntireLine,intCharLoopCount,1))     intCharLoopCount = intCharLoopCount + 1   Loop   intCharLoopCount = intPositionToStartFrom   'Get the left 10 words   Do until intWordcount = 10     If mid(strEntireLine,intCharLoopCount,1) = " " then       intWordCount = intWordCount + 1     end if     strToTheLeft10Words = strToTheLeft10Words + (mid(strEntireLine,intCharLoopCount,1))     intCharLoopCount = intCharLoopCount - 1   Loop end if

of course this is really buggy I guess, havent got enough time to check it but should help you along

Edited by Gullanian

many search engines use trimming scripts, did you try contacting them and asking them how they did it? Some search engine is bound to give you some help...

The way I would do this is to limit it by characters not words. Set it to like 100 before the word and 100 character from the beginning of the word.

function FocusKeyword (strSting, strKeyword)
dim intPosition, intLength
intLength = 100
' get keyword's position in the string
intPosition = inStr(strString, strKeyword)

'truncate characters before keyowrd to intLength
if intPosition > intLength then
     strString = Right(strString, len(strString)-intLength)
     intPosition = inStr(strString, strKeyword)
end if

' truncate characters after the beginning of the keyword to intLength
if len(strString) > intPosition + intLength then
     strString = Left(strString, intPosition+intLength)
end if

'truncate to the first space in the string
strString = right(strString, len(strString)-Instr(strString," "))

'truncate to the first space and the end of the string
strString = left(strString, inStrRev(strString))

'highlight keyword
strString = Replace(strString, strKeyword, "<b>"& strKeyword &"</b>")
'return string
FocusKeyword = strString
end function

I didn't test the function so it may not be perfect, but it will give to the general idea.