Manual Pages for UNIX Darwin command on man Text::Wrap

Text::Wrap(3pm) Perl Programmers Reference Guide Text::Wrap(3pm)

NAME

Text::Wrap - line wrapping to form simple paragraphs

SYNOPSIS

EExxaammppllee 11

use Text::Wrap

$initialtab = "\t"; # Tab before first line

$subsequenttab = ""; # All other lines flush left

print wrap($initialtab, $subsequenttab, @text);

print fill($initialtab, $subsequenttab, @text);

$lines = wrap($initialtab, $subsequenttab, @text);

@paragraphs = fill($initialtab, $subsequenttab, @text);

EExxaammppllee 22

use Text::Wrap qw(wrap $columns $huge);

$columns = 132; # Wrap at 132 characters

$huge = 'die';

$huge = 'wrap';

$huge = 'overflow';

EExxaammppllee 33

use Text::Wrap

$Text::Wrap::columns = 72;

print wrap('', '', @text);

DESCRIPTION

"Text::Wrap::wrap()" is a very simple paragraph formatter. It formats

a single paragraph at a time by breaking lines at word boundries.

Indentation is controlled for the first line ($initialtab) and all

subsequent lines ($subsequenttab) independently. Please note: $ini-

tialtab and $subsequenttab are the literal strings that will be used:

it is unlikley you would want to pass in a number.

Text::Wrap::fill() is a simple multi-paragraph formatter. It formats

each paragraph separately and then joins them together when it's done. It will destroy any whitespace in the original text. It breaks text into paragraphs by looking for whitespace after a newline. In other respects it acts like wrap(). OOVVEERRRRIIDDEESS

"Text::Wrap::wrap()" has a number of variables that control its behav-

ior. Because other modules might be using "Text::Wrap::wrap()" it is

suggested that you leave these variables alone! If you can't do that,

then use "local($Text::Wrap::VARIABLE) = YOURVALUE" when you change the

values so that the original value is restored. This "local()" trick will not work if you import the variable into your own namespace.

Lines are wrapped at $Text::Wrap::columns columns. $Text::Wrap::col-

umns should be set to the full width of your output device. In fact,

every resulting line will have length of no more than "$columns - 1".

It is possible to control which characters terminate words by modifying

$Text::Wrap::break. Set this to a string such as '[\s:]' (to break

before spaces or colons) or a pre-compiled regexp such as "qr/[\s']/"

(to break before spaces or apostrophes). The default is simply '\s'; that is, words are terminated by spaces. (This means, among other things, that trailing punctuation such as full stops or commas stay with the word they are "attached" to.)

Beginner note: In example 2, above $columns is imported into the 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 its

input into spaces. The last thing it does it to turn spaces back into

tabs. If you do not want tabs in your results, set $Text::Wrap::unex-

pand to a false value. Likewise if you do not want to use 8-character

tabstops, set $Text::Wrap::tabstop to the 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 replaces all new-

lines with $Text::Wrap::separator. If you just to preserve existing

newlines but add new breaks with something else, set $Text::Wrap::sepa-

rator2 instead.

When words that are longer than $columns are encountered, they are bro-

ken 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 'over-

flow', large words will be left intact.

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

'wrap' is the default value. EEXXAAMMPPLLEE print wrap("\t","","This is a bit of text that forms

a normal book-style paragraph");

LLIICCEENNSSEE David Muir Sharnoff with help from Tim Pierce and many

may be modified, used, copied, and redistributed at your own risk. Publicly redistributed modified versions must use a different name.