[reportlab-users] Getting the number of lines in a frame

[Robin Becker]

Saketh Bhamidipati wrote:
> I have a frame from which I want to get the number of lines of text.
> Checking for newlines does not work, because the frames wrap the text. I
> want to get the number of lines of text after the frame wraps them.
> 
......
> I hope that there is a way for me to count the number of lines of text. I
> don't want to have to measure the width of the characters and calculate the
> lines of text manually.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Saketh
> 

Frames don't know anything about lines they just control space. You add 
flowables to them and they either accept the flowable or complain. You can then 
choose to split the flowable or jump to the next page etc etc (at least that is 
what the doctemplate class attempts).

Frames do know about space so theoretically you can ask them how big they are 
and how much space they have left. At present there's no api on frames to do 
that. you could just say it is

      f.y - f._y1p

but for paragraphs that won't usually help you very much as the vertical height 
used by a paragraph depends on the available width

     f._getAvailableWidth()

and the style specified leading for the paragraph as well as the text. Our line 
  breaking algorithm is very naive.
-- 
Robin Becker