1Text::Wrap(3)         User Contributed Perl Documentation        Text::Wrap(3)
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3
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NAME

6       Text::Wrap - line wrapping to form simple paragraphs
7

SYNOPSIS

9       Example 1
10
11               use Text::Wrap;
12
13               $initial_tab = "\t";    # Tab before first line
14               $subsequent_tab = "";   # All other lines flush left
15
16               print wrap($initial_tab, $subsequent_tab, @text);
17               print fill($initial_tab, $subsequent_tab, @text);
18
19               $lines = wrap($initial_tab, $subsequent_tab, @text);
20
21               @paragraphs = fill($initial_tab, $subsequent_tab, @text);
22
23       Example 2
24
25               use Text::Wrap qw(wrap $columns $huge);
26
27               $columns = 132;         # Wrap at 132 characters
28               $huge = 'die';
29               $huge = 'wrap';
30               $huge = 'overflow';
31
32       Example 3
33
34               use Text::Wrap;
35
36               $Text::Wrap::columns = 72;
37               print wrap('', '', @text);
38

DESCRIPTION

40       "Text::Wrap::wrap()" is a very simple paragraph formatter.  It formats
41       a single paragraph at a time by breaking lines at word boundaries.
42       Indentation is controlled for the first line ($initial_tab) and all
43       subsequent lines ($subsequent_tab) independently.  Please note:
44       $initial_tab and $subsequent_tab are the literal strings that will be
45       used: it is unlikely you would want to pass in a number.
46
47       "Text::Wrap::fill()" is a simple multi-paragraph formatter.  It formats
48       each paragraph separately and then joins them together when it's done.
49       It will destroy any whitespace in the original text.  It breaks text
50       into paragraphs by looking for whitespace after a newline.  In other
51       respects, it acts like wrap().
52
53       "wrap()" compresses trailing whitespace into one newline, and "fill()"
54       deletes all trailing whitespace.
55
56       Both "wrap()" and "fill()" return a single string.
57
58       Unlike the old Unix fmt(1) utility, this module correctly accounts for
59       any Unicode combining characters (such as diacriticals) that may occur
60       in each line for both expansion and unexpansion.  These are overstrike
61       characters that do not increment the logical position.  Make sure you
62       have the appropriate Unicode settings enabled.
63

OVERRIDES

65       "Text::Wrap::wrap()" has a number of variables that control its
66       behavior.  Because other modules might be using "Text::Wrap::wrap()" it
67       is suggested that you leave these variables alone!  If you can't do
68       that, then use "local($Text::Wrap::VARIABLE) = YOURVALUE" when you
69       change the values so that the original value is restored.  This
70       "local()" trick will not work if you import the variable into your own
71       namespace.
72
73       Lines are wrapped at $Text::Wrap::columns columns (default value: 76).
74       $Text::Wrap::columns should be set to the full width of your output
75       device.  In fact, every resulting line will have length of no more than
76       "$columns - 1".
77
78       It is possible to control which characters terminate words by modifying
79       $Text::Wrap::break. Set this to a string such as '[\s:]' (to break
80       before spaces or colons) or a pre-compiled regexp such as "qr/[\s']/"
81       (to break before spaces or apostrophes). The default is simply '\s';
82       that is, words are terminated by spaces.  (This means, among other
83       things, that trailing punctuation  such as full stops or commas stay
84       with the word they are "attached" to.)  Setting $Text::Wrap::break to a
85       regular expression that doesn't eat any characters (perhaps just a
86       forward look-ahead assertion) will cause warnings.
87
88       Beginner note: In example 2, above $columns is imported into the local
89       namespace, and set locally.  In example 3, $Text::Wrap::columns is set
90       in its own namespace without importing it.
91
92       "Text::Wrap::wrap()" starts its work by expanding all the tabs in its
93       input into spaces.  The last thing it does it to turn spaces back into
94       tabs.  If you do not want tabs in your results, set
95       $Text::Wrap::unexpand to a false value.  Likewise if you do not want to
96       use 8-character tabstops, set $Text::Wrap::tabstop to the number of
97       characters you do want for your tabstops.
98
99       If you want to separate your lines with something other than "\n" then
100       set $Text::Wrap::separator to your preference.  This replaces all
101       newlines with $Text::Wrap::separator.  If you just want to preserve
102       existing newlines but add new breaks with something else, set
103       $Text::Wrap::separator2 instead.
104
105       When words that are longer than $columns are encountered, they are
106       broken up.  "wrap()" adds a "\n" at column $columns.  This behavior can
107       be overridden by setting $huge to 'die' or to 'overflow'.  When set to
108       'die', large words will cause "die()" to be called.  When set to
109       'overflow', large words will be left intact.
110
111       Historical notes: 'die' used to be the default value of $huge.  Now,
112       'wrap' is the default value.
113

EXAMPLES

115       Code:
116
117         print wrap("\t","",<<END);
118         This is a bit of text that forms
119         a normal book-style indented paragraph
120         END
121
122       Result:
123
124         "     This is a bit of text that forms
125         a normal book-style indented paragraph
126         "
127
128       Code:
129
130         $Text::Wrap::columns=20;
131         $Text::Wrap::separator="|";
132         print wrap("","","This is a bit of text that forms a normal book-style paragraph");
133
134       Result:
135
136         "This is a bit of|text that forms a|normal book-style|paragraph"
137

SUBVERSION

139       This module comes in two flavors: one for modern perls (5.10 and above)
140       and one for ancient obsolete perls.  The version for modern perls has
141       support for Unicode.  The version for old perls does not.  You can tell
142       which version you have installed by looking at $Text::Wrap::SUBVERSION:
143       it is "old" for obsolete perls and "modern" for current perls.
144
145       This man page is for the version for modern perls and so that's
146       probably what you've got.
147

SEE ALSO

149       For correct handling of East Asian half- and full-width characters, see
150       Text::WrapI18N.  For more detailed controls: Text::Format.
151

AUTHOR

153       David Muir Sharnoff <cpan@dave.sharnoff.org> with help from Tim Pierce
154       and many many others.
155

LICENSE

157       Copyright (C) 1996-2009 David Muir Sharnoff.  Copyright (C) 2012-2013
158       Google, Inc.  This module may be modified, used, copied, and
159       redistributed at your own risk.  Although allowed by the preceding
160       license, please do not publicly redistribute modified versions of this
161       code with the name "Text::Wrap" unless it passes the unmodified
162       Text::Wrap test suite.
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166perl v5.32.1                      2021-01-27                     Text::Wrap(3)
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