Question

MVC 3. Vb.net. Part of my app generates PDF files using Itextsharp. Some strings are too long to go onto the background image correctly. So I basically need to split this string when its over 26 characters long and when it splits it cant split in the middle of a word. from there I will use newline to add the string to the right to the next line… Any ideas that might point me in the right direction.. I did start bulding the function that I will pass the string into test for length and then pass back the string after it finishes but I am stummped after that..

    Private Function stringLength(ByVal _string As String) As String
        If _string.Length < 26 Then
            _string.Split(
        End If
    End Function

Answer 1

I’m sure there’s a million different ways to do this.

You basically need to get all of your words split by the space into a list. After that, you just need to keep checking if the current word plus a space plus the next word reach your threshold or not, and if it does, you move to the next line. Once you have all of your lines, then you rejoin the list into a single string again.

Private Function LimitWidth(ByVal text As String, ByVal maxCharacters As Integer) As String
  Dim words As List(Of String) = text.Split(" "c).ToList()

  If text.Length < maxCharacters OrElse words.Count = 1 Then
    Return text
  Else
    Dim lines As New List(Of String)

    Dim currentLine As String = words(0)
    For i As Integer = 1 To words.Count - 1
      If (currentLine & " " & words(i)).Length > maxCharacters Then
        lines.Add(currentLine)
        currentLine = words(i)

        If i = words.Count - 1 Then
          lines.Add(currentLine)
        End If
      Else
        If i = words.Count - 1 Then
          lines.Add(currentLine & " " & words(i))
        End If

        currentLine &= " " & words(i)
      End If
    Next

    Return String.Join(Environment.NewLine, lines.ToArray())
  End If
End Function

To Test:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
  MessageBox.Show(LimitWidth("This is a really long sentence " & _
                             "meant to demonstrate how to split " & _
                             "the words into a confined character length.", 26))
End Sub