Dynamic border around text in python

Question

I need to input a sentence and make a dynamic border around that sentence. The border needs to have a width that is inputted. When the length of the sentence is higher than the given width, a new line has to be printed and the border has to change in height. The sentence also has to be centered in the dynamic border

I already tried this:

sentence = input()
width = int(input())

length_of_sentence = len(sentence)

print('+-' + '-'*(width) + '-+')

for letter in sentence:
    print('| {0:^{1}} |'.format(letter, width - 4))

print('+-' + '-'*(width) + '-+')

but then each letter with a new line is printed and that's not what I need.

A great example is the following;

Input

sentence = "You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely."
width = 26

Output

+----------------------------+
| You are only young once, b |
| ut you can stay immature i |
|         ndefinitely.       |
+----------------------------+

I know there are already posted questions around this topic but they don't cover dynamic inputs. — Dries Coppens, Feb 13 '16 at 14:26
Take a look at [Split python string every nth character?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9475241/split-python-string-every-nth-character). That should get you started. — PM 2Ring, Feb 13 '16 at 14:36

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 13 '16 at 15:13

You can also use textwrap.wrap if you want to avoid breaking words in the middle:

from textwrap import wrap

sentence = input('Sentence: ')
width = int(input('Width: '))

print('+-' + '-' * width + '-+')

for line in wrap(sentence, width):
    print('| {0:^{1}} |'.format(line, width))

print('+-' + '-'*(width) + '-+')

Outputs:

+----------------------------+
|  You are only young once,  |
| but you can stay immature  |
|       indefinitely.        |
+----------------------------+

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:52

4

So instead of doing a letter-wise input, you'd want to split the string into chunks of width letters. Taking the accepted answer:

def chunkstring(string, length):
    return (string[0+i:length+i] for i in range(0, len(string), length))

sentence = input('Sentence: ')
width = int(input('Width: '))

print('+-' + '-' * width + '-+')

for line in chunkstring(sentence, width):
    print('| {0:^{1}} |'.format(line, width))

print('+-' + '-'*(width) + '-+')

Example run:

Sentence: You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely. 
Width: 26
+----------------------------+
| You are only young once, b |
| ut you can stay immature i |
|       ndefinitely.         |
+----------------------------+

edited May 23 '17 at 11:52

Community

1
1

answered Feb 13 '16 at 14:37

Antti Haapala -- Слава Україні

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Works like a charm, but there is one problem I didn't mention. If the width is higher then the length of the sentence, the width is equal to the width of the sentence so you won't create a giant dynamic border. – Dries Coppens Feb 13 '16 at 16:08
1

Easy, just add there a line of `width = min(width, len(sentence))` – Antti Haapala -- Слава Україні Feb 13 '16 at 16:28

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 13 '16 at 14:51

i would use PrettyTable module for this task - it will take care of "nicely" printing:

import prettytable as pt

sentence = "You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely."
width = 26


t = pt.PrettyTable()

t.field_names = ['output']
[t.add_row([sentence[i:i + width]]) for i in range(0, len(sentence), width)]

print(t)

Output:

+----------------------------+
|           output           |
+----------------------------+
| You are only young once, b |
| ut you can stay immature i |
|        ndefinitely.        |
+----------------------------+

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 13 '16 at 14:47

import math

sentence = input()
width = int(input())

length_of_sentence = len(sentence)

print('+-' + '-'*(width) + '-+')

i = 0
lines = int(math.ceil(length_of_sentence/float(width)))
for l in xrange(lines): 
    line = sentence[i:i+width]
    if len(line) < width:
        padding = (width - len(line))/2
        line = padding*' ' + line + padding*' ' 
    print('| {0} |'.format(line))
    i += width

print('+-' + '-'*(width) + '-+')

Dynamic border around text in python

4 Answers4

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