Static side of charcter wall

I think I asked somethign similar to this before but i haven't figured it out yet.

I made a nice little menu(well... i think so) for my game and in the message section it displays last monster fought money gained and skill gained but when it displays the name it moves part of the wall so it doesn't look like a normal box any more.

Is there anyway to make it static so it doesn't move when the text within gets too big?

Code:

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cout<<"ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»";
cout<<endl;
cout<<"ºNAME:"<<user.name<<"      ºLVL:"<<user.skill<<"    ºMESSAGES:                            º";
cout<<endl;
cout<<"ÌÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͹";
cout<<endl;
cout<<"º                º          º"<<"LAST FIGHT:"<<m.monname<<"                          º";
cout<<endl;
cout<<"º                º          º                                      º";
cout<<endl;
cout<<"º                º          º                                      º";
cout<<endl;
cout<<"º                º          º                                      º";
cout<<endl;
cout<<"º                º          º                                      º";
cout<<endl;
cout<<"ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ";

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Well, I found a rather ugly solution to your problem, there's probably a better, more readable, way though.

However, it should do what you want, the boxes will stay the same size as long as there is enough room in them for the text you try and put there. (If you try and put more chars then the box has room for it will screw up the formating).

Code:

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#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;

#define WIDTH(w, info) cout << setw(w) << setfill(' ') << setiosflags(ios::left) << info

void printMenu(char *playerName, int playerLevel, char *lastFight, char *message);

int main()
{
        printMenu("Bob", 50, "The Monster", "This is a message");
        return 0;
}

void printMenu(char *playerName, int playerLevel, char *lastFight, char *message)
{

        cout << " ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»" << endl;        // top line
        cout << " ºNAME:"; WIDTH(11, playerName); cout << "º";        // 'name' box
        cout << "LVL:"; WIDTH(6, playerLevel); cout << "º";        // 'level' box
        cout << "MESSAGES:"; WIDTH(29, message); cout << "º" << endl;        // 'message' box
        cout << " ÌÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͹" << endl;        // dividing line
        WIDTH(18, " º"); WIDTH(11, "º"); cout << "ºLAST FIGHT:"; WIDTH(27, lastFight); cout << "º" << endl;        // 'last fight' box
        WIDTH(18, " º"); WIDTH(11, "º"); WIDTH(39, "º"); cout << "º" <<endl;        // empty space
        WIDTH(18, " º"); WIDTH(11, "º"); WIDTH(39, "º"); cout << "º" <<endl;        // empty space
        WIDTH(18, " º"); WIDTH(11, "º"); WIDTH(39, "º"); cout << "º" <<endl;        // empty space
        WIDTH(18, " º"); WIDTH(11, "º"); WIDTH(39, "º"); cout << "º" <<endl;        // empty space
        cout << " ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ" << endl;        // bottom line
}

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I tried to keep one line of printed text on one line of code. The WIDTH macro is there to keep the lines from becoming insanely long.

On the bright side though, you never actualy have to touch that code unless you want to change the way the menu is built, you can just call the 'printMenu' function.