[reportlab-users] Printing Variable Length String

[Tim Roberts]

Rich Shepard wrote:

> On Sun, 4 Nov 2007, timr at probo.com wrote:

>

>> ... but it really isn't that hard to do word-wrapping on your own. You

>> can split() the string on white space, and keep adding words one at a

>> time

>> until the stringWidth() exceeds the length you want, and then back

>> off one

>> word.

>

>   Has anyone a working algorithm to do this? The one I'm working on seems

> excessively bulky and complex; I'm sure there's an easier way.


No, bulky is pretty much the rule.  Here's what I use.  This accepts a
string, a canvas, and a width, and returns a list of strings, each of
which is smaller than "width".

def wrap( strg, cvs, width ):
    fn = cvs._fontname
    fs = cvs._fontsize
    if cvs.stringWidth( strg, fn, fs ) <= width:
        return [strg]

    accum = []
    s = ''
    for i in strg.split():
        if cvs.stringWidth( s+i, fn, fs ) > width:
            accum.append( s )
            s = ''
        if s:
            s = ' '.join( (s, i) )
        else:
            s = i
    if s:
        accum.append( s )
    return accum

Support for extra spaces after full stops is left as an exercise for the
reader.

-- 
Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.