Thread: Wrapping words during printf from a string so words are never broken apart

I'm trying to write a program that wraps words to the next line if there isn't room for them in the current column. I have a function I've written but it doesn't work (apparently strcmp() only works with consts ). This could is by no means perfect, in fact I'm sure it's terrible.

Example output:
Line read from file using fgets: "I like rice"

If max column width is 4 lets say, it should print out:
I
like
rice

Here's my current function: (does not work in the slightest)

Code:

void printWordsWrap(const char *line, int maxLineLength)
{
    int i = 0;
    int j = 0;
    char *space = " ";
    int counter = -1;
    int startPosition = 0;


    for (i = 0; i < maxLineLength; i++)
    {
        if (strcmp(space, line[i]) != 0) // ERROR: (line is underlined) says argument of type char is incompatble with const char* 
        {
            counter++; // increment counter if it's not a space
        }
        if (strcmp(space, line[i]) == 0) // check to see if current char is a space, also, same error here
        {
            if (counter < maxLineLength) // checks to see if the current counter increment will fit in the column
            {
                for (j = startPosition; j < counter; j++) //prints the characters associated with how how the counter got
                {
                    printf("%c", line[j]);
                }
                startPosition = counter; // sets startposition to where we left off, so we aren't starting at the start of the line everytime
            }
            else
            {
                printf("\n"); // throw a new line in there.
                for (j = startPosition; j < counter; j++) // this assumes no words are longer then the column width
                {
                    printf("%c", line[j]); // print the word
                }
                startPosition = counter;
            }
        }
    }
    return;
}

strcmp() - compares strings.

In your function, you are comparing a string and a char, so the error.

To compare two char, a char from char array and a space, do something like this:

(line[i] != ' ')

You will have to make additional changes to make the function work.

There are always longer words that will be torn apart by narrow columns - try and print "breakfast" in a column 4 chars wide.

Here's how I'd do it:

Code:

#define WIDTH 4

get the len of the string to be printed
nextBreak = 0; //# of chars until next word break or newline
c=0;
for(i=0;i<len;i++) {  iterate over each letter
   if(str[i]==' ' || str[i]=='\n') {  //need a new newBreak
       assign nextBreak to i+1
       //now scout ahead to find the next word break or newline
       while(str[nextBreak]!= ' ' && str[nextBreak] != '\n') {
            if(!str[nextBreak]) break;
            ++nextBreak;
         }
         now subtract i from nextBreak and assign it to nextBreak
         so you have current info on how far it is to the next break
     }
      if(c plus nextBreak greater than WIDTH) {
         print a newline   
         c=-1;             //reset c so it will be 0 at the top of the loop
         if(str[i]==' ')   //don't print a space at the far left column
            ++i;        //just iterate over it
      }
      
      print str[i]     //ready to print
      --nextBreak;    //closer to nextBreak
      ++c;       //increment the current column #
   }

With this type of logic, if you try to print "breakfast" in a width of 4 you'll get:

b
r
e
a
k
fast

So it's not up to newspaper printing, just yet. <smile>

But any word that is less than or equal to the width, will print OK.

Thanks a ton!