$str = "make sure this string is less than 45 chars and truncate on wh
+itespace if need be";
$fstr = substr($str,0,45);
$sstr = substr($str,45);
$fstr =~ s/\s+\w*$// if $sstr =~ /^\w/;
[download]

Seems a little redundant I suppose, but I did it off the top of my head.

UPDATE: I benchmarked it and it seems to compare favorably to graff's first option which I figured would be fastest since it doesn't use regexes at all.

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Amel