I needed to have the ability to measure the length of each line of a string that would be displayed in a text box using vb.net.
This is what it does: You tell it the string that you want to use, the text control that it is going to use and the number of rows you want to display. The function builds line-by-line the string until no more will fit and returns the new string that will fit within that control.
Private Function fitTextToLength(stringToFit As String, textfield As Object, rows As Short)
' This function is very important for displaying text in the alerts properly.
' stringToFit is the string that is going to be used to populate the control
' textField is the object where teh text will be placed. We will have to consider the size
' of the field for this function.
' rows indicated how many rows is wanted for the field. Multiline fields would be more then 1
' depending on useage requirements
' Split the words
Dim words() As String = stringToFit.Split(" ")
Dim complete As Boolean = False
Dim counter As Short = 0
Dim row As Short = 0
Dim stringLine As String = String.Empty
Dim finalText As String = String.Empty
' Loop until we find a complete string
While Not (complete)
' Build a string to mesaure
' This is built word-by-word until the string is too long for the objects width
' Each word is not added to the string until it is known that it will fit.
Dim myString As String = stringLine & words(counter) & " "
' Measure the string length for comparision
Dim g As Graphics = Graphics.FromHwnd(textfield.Handle)
Dim f As SizeF = g.MeasureString(myString & "...", textfield.Font)
' Determine if the built string fits the width of the object
If f.Width <= textfield.width Then
' Concatenate the string to the main string
stringLine = myString
counter += 1
Else
' Check to see if we have reach the max row
If row = rows Then
' Show that there is more text using "..."
finalText += "..."
' Complete the loop
complete = True
Else
' Increase the row
row += 1
' Concat the final text
finalText += stringLine
' Clear the stringLine for the next line to build
stringLine = String.Empty
End If
End If
' Make sure that we don't go beyond the array
If counter >= words.Length Then
' Concat the build string to the main string
finalText += myString
' Exit the loop
complete = True
End If
End While
' Return the result.
Return finalText
End Function
