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Text::Wrap

Section: User Contributed Perl Documentation (3)
Updated: 2010-12-01
Index

NAME

Text::Wrap - line wrapping to form simple paragraphs

SYNOPSIS

Example 1

        use Text::Wrap;        $initial_tab = "\t";    # Tab before first line        $subsequent_tab = "";   # All other lines flush left        print wrap($initial_tab, $subsequent_tab, @text);        print fill($initial_tab, $subsequent_tab, @text);        $lines = wrap($initial_tab, $subsequent_tab, @text);        @paragraphs = fill($initial_tab, $subsequent_tab, @text);

Example 2

        use Text::Wrap qw(wrap $columns $huge);        $columns = 132;         # Wrap at 132 characters        $huge = 'die';        $huge = 'wrap';        $huge = 'overflow';

Example 3

        use Text::Wrap;        $Text::Wrap::columns = 72;        print wrap('', '', @text);

DESCRIPTION

"Text::Wrap::wrap()" is a very simple paragraph formatter. It formats asingle paragraph at a time by breaking lines at word boundaries.Indentation is controlled for the first line ($initial_tab) andall subsequent lines ($subsequent_tab) independently. Please note: $initial_tab and $subsequent_tab are the literal strings that willbe used: it is unlikely you would want to pass in a number.

Text::Wrap::fill() is a simple multi-paragraph formatter. It formatseach paragraph separately and then joins them together when it's done. Itwill destroy any whitespace in the original text. It breaks text intoparagraphs by looking for whitespace after a newline. In other respectsit acts like wrap().

Both "wrap()" and "fill()" return a single string.

OVERRIDES

"Text::Wrap::wrap()" has a number of variables that control its behavior.Because other modules might be using "Text::Wrap::wrap()" it is suggestedthat you leave these variables alone! If you can't do that, then use "local($Text::Wrap::VARIABLE) = YOURVALUE" when you change thevalues so that the original value is restored. This "local()" trickwill not work if you import the variable into your own namespace.

Lines are wrapped at $Text::Wrap::columns columns (default value: 76).$Text::Wrap::columns should be set to the full width of your outputdevice. In fact, every resulting line will have length of no more than"$columns - 1".

It is possible to control which characters terminate words bymodifying $Text::Wrap::break. Set this to a string such as'[\s:]' (to break before spaces or colons) or a pre-compiled regexpsuch as "qr/[\s']/" (to break before spaces or apostrophes). Thedefault is simply '\s'; that is, words are terminated by spaces.(This means, among other things, that trailing punctuation such asfull stops or commas stay with the word they are ``attached'' to.)Setting $Text::Wrap::break to a regular expression that doesn'teat any characters (perhaps just a forward look-ahead assertion) willcause warnings.

Beginner note: In example 2, above $columns is imported intothe local namespace, and set locally. In example 3,$Text::Wrap::columns is set in its own namespace without importing it.

"Text::Wrap::wrap()" starts its work by expanding all the tabs in itsinput into spaces. The last thing it does it to turn spaces backinto tabs. If you do not want tabs in your results, set $Text::Wrap::unexpand to a false value. Likewise if you do notwant to use 8-character tabstops, set $Text::Wrap::tabstop tothe number of characters you do want for your tabstops.

If you want to separate your lines with something other than "\n"then set $Text::Wrap::separator to your preference. This replacesall newlines with $Text::Wrap::separator. If you just want to preserve existing newlines but add new breaks with something else, set$Text::Wrap::separator2 instead.

When words that are longer than $columns are encountered, theyare broken up. "wrap()" adds a "\n" at column $columns.This behavior can be overridden by setting $huge to'die' or to 'overflow'. When set to 'die', large words will cause"die()" to be called. When set to 'overflow', large words will beleft intact.

Historical notes: 'die' used to be the default value of$huge. Now, 'wrap' is the default value.

EXAMPLES

Code:

  print wrap("\t","",<<END);  This is a bit of text that forms   a normal book-style indented paragraph  END

Result:

  "     This is a bit of text that forms  a normal book-style indented paragraph     "

Code:

  $Text::Wrap::columns=20;  $Text::Wrap::separator="|";  print wrap("","","This is a bit of text that forms a normal book-style paragraph");

Result:

  "This is a bit of|text that forms a|normal book-style|paragraph"

LICENSE

David Muir Sharnoff <muirAATTidiom.org> with help from Tim Pierce andmany many others. Copyright (C) 1996-2009 David Muir Sharnoff. This module may be modified, used, copied, and redistributed atyour own risk. Publicly redistributed versions that are modified must use a different name.

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