UTF-8 character_limiter

if ( ! function_exists('character_limiter'))
{
    function character_limiter($str, $n = 500, $end_char = '…')
    {
        if (mb_strlen($str, "UTF-8") < $n)
        {
            return $str;
        }

        $str = preg_replace("/\s+/u", ' ', str_replace(array("\r\n", "\r", "\n"), ' ', $str));

        if (mb_strlen($str, "UTF-8") <= $n)
        {
            return $str;
        }

        $out = "";
        foreach (explode(' ', trim($str)) as $val)
        {
            $out .= $val.' ';

            if (mb_strlen($out, "UTF-8") >= $n)
            {
                $out = trim($out);
                return (mb_strlen($out, "UTF-8") == mb_strlen($str, "UTF-8")) ? $out : $out.$end_char;
            }
        }
    }
}