Is there a way to convert string length as derived from something like strlen() into pixel length in PHP?

Question

For example:

<?php
$string = 'Foo bar';

$length = strlen($string);

echo '<div style="width: '.$length.'px;">'.$string.'</div>';

The above obviously does not work, as $length is 7 and 7px is smaller than the size of the outputted text.

I also understand that font size and other factors will come into play, as well.

What I'm looking for is something like this:

<div style="width:xxx; float:left;">Label 1</div><input type="checkbox"/><br/>
<div style="width:xxx; float:left; clear:left;">Longer Label 2</div> <input type="checkbox"/><br/>
<div style="width:xxx; float:left; clear:left;">Even Longer Label 3</div> <input type="checkbox"/><br/>

If you understand, then answer is `$length * $otherFactors`. — dev-null-dweller, Jan 01 '13 at 17:50
why do you want to do that - if you want the text to fit in the div - just _don't_ give it a width — AD7six, Jan 01 '13 at 17:52
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/118241/calculate-text-width-with-javascript — viljun, Jan 01 '13 at 17:53
@AD7six for example, say you have checkboxes with corresponding labels. I want the checkboxes to line up based upon the greatest label length. — reformed, Jan 01 '13 at 17:53
Take a look at this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/118241/calculate-text-width-with-javascript — viljun, Jan 01 '13 at 17:54
@reformed you're describing `display:block` - in short, don't do this - _use css_. — AD7six, Jan 01 '13 at 17:55
What I'm looking for is something like this:
Label 1

Label 2

Label 3 — reformed, Jan 01 '13 at 18:00

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 01 '13 at 17:54

1

If you know the font you'll be using, you want to know about imagettfbbox().

But yeah, just dont give widths and right-align the text, or use a grid-system layout like Bootstrap or 960.gs.

answered Jan 01 '13 at 17:54

moonwave99

21,957
3
43
64

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 01 '13 at 17:57

My understanding is that your are trying to match the length of the string to the dimensions of the corresponding . As you have already indicated this is only possible if you take Font Type and Size into consideration. Assuming you would have a mono-spaced font you would have to multiply $length with a factor.

The real messy part starts if you use not mono-spaced fonts...

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 01 '13 at 18:03

0

Also if you set value of display property to inline-block div element behaves like a block element but it's width changes with it's containing elements display: inline-block

answered Jan 01 '13 at 18:03

Mustafa Shujaie

806
2
10
18

Is there a way to convert string length as derived from something like strlen() into pixel length in PHP?

3 Answers3