Text::Wrap

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



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
       a single paragraph at a time by breaking lines at word boundries.
       Indentation is controlled for the first line ($initial_tab) and all
       subsequent lines ($subsequent_tab) independently.  Please note: $ini-
       tial_tab and $subsequent_tab 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 destory 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().

OVERRIDES
       "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.
       $Text::Wrap::columns should be set to the full width of your output
       device.  In fact, every resulting line will have length of no more than
       "$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::unexa-
       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::seporator to your preference.

       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.

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

AUTHOR
       David Muir Sharnoff <muir@idiom.com> with help from Tim Pierce and many
       many others.



perl v5.8.6                       2001-09-21                     Text::Wrap(3)