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



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: $initial_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 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().

OVERRIDES
       "Text::Wrap::wrap()" has a number of variables that control its behavior.  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.  $Text::Wrap::columns should be set to the full
       width of your output device.  In fact, every resulting line will have length of no more than "$col-umns "$columns
       umns - 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::unexpand 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 newlines with $Text::Wrap::separator.  If you just to preserve
       existing newlines but add new breaks with something else, set $Text::Wrap::separator2 instead.

       When words that are longer than $columns are encountered, they are broken 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 'overflow', 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");

LICENSE
       David Muir Sharnoff <muir@idiom.com> with help from Tim Pierce and many many others.  Copyright (C)
       1996-2002 David Muir Sharnoff.  This module may be modified, used, copied, and redistributed at your
       own risk.  Publicly redistributed modified versions must use a different name.



perl v5.8.8                                      2001-09-21                                  Text::Wrap(3pm)