formatting text for a specific width

[mstembri]

I have a text file that will be written to with data from end users (text datatype).

The text document is formatted such that there is a column of text around 200px wide, set in the middle of the page.

Is there a way I can (or function that will) format a string (perhaps a paragraph or two) so that it will fit in this text document? Mind that the string is not a constant - it is entered by end users so I can't exactly hard code \n\t.

Thanks in advance,

[freakysid]

Hi, its just about my bed time - so maybe that explains it - but I've got no idea what you are trying to do

[mstembri]

Ok, here's the text that is in the database:

Snipped as it was causing the page width to be too wide to read...   
Just imagine a real long string without breaks being here :)

And, providing (code)(/code) preserves formatting.... Here is how the text should appear in the text document:

                     We arrived at the track around noon. 
                     The parking lot was cram-packed, though 
                     we lucked up and found a spot in the 
                     shade. After unloading and getting geared 
                     up, we fired up the bikes. Mine's been cold-
                     starting very well lately. I began using a drill 
                     I read about in an old issue of Dirt Bike -- 
                     put the bike in second and rock back and 
                     forth a few times; choke, kick, lights right 
                     up on first or second kick.

[mstembri]

Ok, I've an idea of how I want to structure this...

	$columnwidth = 45; // width of text column
	$tabs = "\n\t\t\t\t";  // line break and spacer	
	$length = strlen($notes);  // length of notes
	$lengthcount = 0;  // counter

	while ($lengthcount <= $length) {
                          // function to insert $tabs goes here		
		$lengthcount = $lengthcount + $columnwidth;
	}

Trick is I am not sure of the function to insert text in a string. This unknown function would be set up like..

insert_function ($notes, $stringtoinsert, [ INT number of characters over to place $stringtoinsert]

I'm looking on php.net, so far no dice.

[freakysid]

oic - so it is a text file? Otherwise if you where outputing to a html file you would
use <div> to format the column. but I think you would have thought about that.
Anyway, ... This should reformat the contents of $string to do what you want. (untested code).

1) To format the text into a fixed width column use wordwrap()
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.wordwrap.php

2) Now you have to manipulate the string so that you insert some whitespace
at the begining of each line. So I would do simething like:

$string = wordwrap($string, $width);
$stringArray = explode('\n', $string);
$whitespace = '          ';  // string to fill whitespace at begining of each line
foreach($stringArray as $line) {
   $newStringArray[] = $whitespace . $line;
}
$string = implode('\n', $newStringArray); 

[mstembri]

	$columnwidth = 48; // width of text column
	$tabs = "\n\t\t\t\t\t   ";  // line break and spacer	
	$length = strlen($notes);  // lenght of notes
	$lengthcount = 0;  // counter

	while ($lengthcount <= $length) {
		$lengthcount = $lengthcount + $columnwidth;
		$notes = substr_replace($notes, $tabs, $lengthcount, 0);
	}

It chops words in half at the breaks, but it works well enough for my purposes.

[mstembri]

Originally posted by freakysid

1) To format the text into a fixed width column use wordwrap()
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.wordwrap.php

Aha, just what I was looking for.

I'll modify my code above. Thanks!

[mstembri]

Just for kicks and giggles, I tried your script...

It works fine in terms of wrapping words, but the whitespace feature only works on the first line... Ideas?

[freakysid]

Yes, '\n' is not evaluated properly in the explode and implode functions. I should have used "\n" which is evaluated to mean the new line character. I modified my code and tested. Here is my test code which now works:

<?php
$string = "this is my string of text I want to wrap blah blah blah";
$width = 12;
$string = wordwrap($string, $width);
$arr = explode("\n", $string);
$whitespace = "          ";
foreach ($arr as $line) {
   $paddedString .= $whitespace . $line . "\n";
}
echo $paddedString . "\n";
?>

[padders]

what is the best way of doing this for an online email sender, i want it to wrap so the emails comes out well.

will using
<textarea name="message" cols="55" rows="15" value="" wrap="hard" style="background-color:CCCCFF"></textarea>

and /n at the end of each line? and what browsers will this work on? sorry for all the questions!