Django truncate words by characters

truncatewords_by_chars.py

from django import template

register = template.Library()

@register.filter
def truncatewords_by_chars(value, arg):
  """
  Truncate words based on the number of characters
  based on original truncatewords filter code
  
  Receives a parameter separated by spaces where each field means:
   - limit: number of characters after which the string is truncated
  """
  from django.utils.text import truncate_words
  try:
    limit = int(arg)
  except ValueError: # Invalid literal for int().
    return 'Invalid literal for int().'
  if len(value) > limit:
    while True:
      words = value.split()
      if len(words) > 1:
        value = truncate_words(value, len(words)-2)
      else:
        value = value[0:limit]
      if len(value) <= limit:
        break
  
  return value