Question

I have failed to find a Windows Runtime equivalent to the following WPF code to measure the width of a string:

FormattedText formattedText = new FormattedText(in_string,in_culture,in_flowdir,in_font,in_sz,in_color);
string_width = formattedText.WidthIncludingTrailingWhitespace);

Does anybody know if it can be done in Metro?

Answer 1

It is possible, I’ve found one method that gives useful measurements, but I am not sure it is the best way of doing it:

// Setup the TextBlock with *everything* that affects how it 
// will be drawn (this is not a complete example)
TextBlock^ tb = ref new TextBlock; 
tb->VerticalAlignment = Windows::UI::Xaml::VerticalAlignment::Top; 
tb->HorizontalAlignment = Windows::UI::Xaml::HorizontalAlignment::Left; 
tb->Height = in_height; 
tb->Text = text;

// Be sure to tell Measure() the correct dimensions that the TextBox 
// have to draw in!
tb->Measure(SizeHelper::FromDimensions(Parent->Width,Parent->Height)); 
text_width = tb->DesiredSize.Width;

My gut feeling is that there are situations in which this code will give an unexpected result.