Try 
s/^(.{1,20}).*/$1/;

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and it's short enough.

Why use a regexp? What if he wants a trailing ellipsis (= 3 dots) in case the string is shortened? 

s/^(.{1,20})(.+)?/$1 . (defined $2 ? "..." : "")/e;

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The neat thing about using regexes is that it's easy to modify to make it sing and dance, once the requirements change ever so slightly.

In reply to Re^4: how to shorten given string? by bart
in thread how to shorten given string? by mellin

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