custom excerpt change […] to link and title

wordpress+custom+excerpt+with+link

one of the top search results:
https://forum.bytesforall.com/showthread.php?t=269

one of the answers in this article:
add this to functions.php of your theme:

//function to replace invalid ellipsis with text linking to the post
function elpie_excerpt($text)
{
   return str_replace('[...]', '<a href="'. get_permalink($post->ID) . '">' . ' [&hellip; Read More]' . '</a>', $text);
}
add_filter('the_excerpt', 'elpie_excerpt');

or one of many plugins:
https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/custom-excerpts/

Thank you for the help!
I had not considered searching for those terms, and had not thought to search with google. I had also not thought about a plugin for this!
I’m trying to sift though code and template tags and sheesh, Ijust hit myself on the head – a plugin.

After looking at the plugin you mentioned above, I clicked on the tag for excerpt to see other plugins that worked with customizing the excerpt. I just tried 6 or 7 different plugins.

The fancy excerpt plugin was the closest to being exactly what I wanted – with a couple of minor flaws in my opinion – but for many people it may do the trick.

I found that the post teaser plugin allowed me to tweak the exact text and format that I need.

thanks for leading me in other directions outside the code box I was stuck in!