Clip Variable

Im using a PHP variable to define a span tag. However, the spaces in the php varaible seem to be causing problems with the span tag, so I was wondering if anyone can tell me a way to clip the variable down to the first 3 letters and use that.

For example, variable1=HELLO WORLD, variable2=HEL

Here is my HTML:

<a href="#" class="buttonx"><span class="<?php echo $_product->gettesting() ?>">This item is <?php echo $_product->gettesting() ?></span></a>

Can someone explain to me in idiot proof steps what I need to do?

http://php.net/substr

Does this create a new variable, or remove characters from the same variable?

Please read the friendly manual pages.

it does both depending on what you want to use it for

$newvar = substr($oldvar, 0,3); // Creates a new variable $newvar and assigns it to that
$oldvar = substr($oldvar, 0,3); // Changes the old variable $oldvar to the three letters