Limit string width by breaking into multiple lines with Python

Question

I am using python to generate a test file used for programming. In this file, I have several auto-generated comments. Problem is, some of these comments can be quite long, and the software which reads the file generates an error if a line is too long.

What I am looking for is a method of breaking a string with '\n# '. The location of these line returns should limit the width of any one line to be less than a certain width. Below is an example of what I want to do. I need code that generates "broken_line" from "long_line".

long_line = "# alpha || bravo || charlie || delta || echo are the first 5 elements of NATO"

broken_line = "# alpha || bravo || charlie ||\n# delta || echo are the first \n# 5 elements of NATO"


>>>print long_line
# alpha || bravo || charlie || delta || echo are the first 5 elements of NATO

>>>print broken_line
# alpha || bravo || charlie ||
# delta || echo are the first
# 5 elements of NATO

Martijn Pieters · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-23 21:08:18Z

7

Use the textwrap module to wrap lines to a maximum width. You can specify '# ' as indentation to prefix your lines properly:

>>> import textwrap
>>> long_line = "# alpha || bravo || charlie || delta || echo are the first 5 elements of NATO"
>>> textwrap.fill(long_line, 30, subsequent_indent='# ')
'# alpha || bravo || charlie ||\n# delta || echo are the first\n# 5 elements of NATO'
>>> print textwrap.fill(long_line, 30, subsequent_indent='# ')
# alpha || bravo || charlie ||
# delta || echo are the first
# 5 elements of NATO

The module is very flexible, do read the documentation to see what knobs you want to twiddle for the perfect result.

edited May 23, 2013 at 21:08

answered May 23, 2013 at 21:03

Martijn Pieters

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1 Comment

Darko Over a year ago

That is a very nice module and it did exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

Fredrik Pihl · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-23 21:03:29Z

1

One approach is to use the textwrap-module

In [6]: import textwrap

In [7]: long_line = "# alpha || bravo || charlie || delta || echo are the first 5 elements of NATO"

In [8]: textwrap.wrap(long_line, width=50)
Out[8]: 
['# alpha || bravo || charlie || delta || echo are',
 'the first 5 elements of NATO']

answered May 23, 2013 at 21:03

Fredrik Pihl

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