LinkLabel needing more space than TextRenderer.MeasureText says - c#

If I give TextRenderer.MeasureText some text to measure and width to use it will return the height needed to display that text.
private static int CalculateHeight(string text, Font font, int width)
{
Size size = TextRenderer.MeasureText(text, font, new Size(width, Int32.MaxValue), TextFormatFlags.NoClipping | TextFormatFlags.WordBreak);
return size.Height;
}
If I give that text, width and height to a LinkLabel it would display the text in the width and height provided with nothing clipped off.
However, if I put a Link into the LinkLabel.Links collection, the LinkLabel will draw the text with what appears to be a little more spacing between the characters and at times this will cause the end of the text to be clipped. Is there anyway to prevent this? I've tried adding padding when there is a link, but there's no reliable way to know exactly how much more space will be needed. Are there any other ways to do this?

You should use Control.GetPreferredSize method to calculate width or height needed for control (LinkLabel in your case). You should not use MeasureText for such purposes, more detailed explanation you can find here (Accuracy of TextRenderer.MeasureText results.)

If a LinkLabel contains more than one link, or there are parts of text which are nor in a link, then the control uses Graphics.DrawString/MeasureString instead of TextRenderer.DrawText/MeasureText. You can easily see it in action, the biggest difference in rendering is with the small L letter:
linkLabel1.Text = new string('l', 100); // 100 x small L
linkLabel1.LinkArea = new LinkArea(0, 50);
linkLabel2.Text = new string('l', 100); // 100 x small L

TextRenderer.MeasureText is a managed wrapper for the DrawTextEx API. The value returned comes from the lprc struct. You might want to look at that API for more details.

I guess you could remove the style that makes it underline. linkLabel.Styles.Add("text-decoration", "none"); but then of course it wouldn't look like a link. :-/
Another solution would be to add the padding yourself I guess.
int heightBefore = linkLabel.Height;
int fontHeight = CalculateHeight(linkLabel.Text, linkLabel.Font, linkLabel.Width);
int paddingHeight = heightBefore - fontHeight;
linkLabel.Font = otherFont;
linkLabel.Height = CalculateHeight(linkLabel.Text, otherFont, linkLabel.Width);
linkLabel.Height += paddingHeight;
Not the prettiest of solutions, but I would guess it works.

Related

Resetting a Stack Panel height to dynamic

If no height is set, a Stack Panel's height is dynamic based on its contents. My question is: if the c# code sets the height, is there a way (in c#) to wipe those values out and return the Stack Panel to sizing dynamically? Something like this...
spnTest.Height = 100; //expands height to 100, even if contents don't fill it
spnTest.HeightIsDynamic = true; //allows the height of spnTest to go back to being dynamic and expand/contract based on its contents
For some reason, setting the height to double.NaN has no effect...
stkTest.Height = 117;
Console.WriteLine($"Height = {stkTest.Height}"); //writes "Height = 117"
stkTest.Height = double.NaN;
Console.WriteLine($"Height = {stkTest.Height}"); //writes "Height = 117"
.ClearValue(HeightProperty) also does not work
A StackPanel initially measures the needed size of the element by using the sizes of the child elements contained within. This initial measurement should be stored in DesiredSize. I would try using the height that is stored there to get the original measurement for the Element. Check out MSDN entry.
MSDN StackPanel

Chart : displaying boolean flags in a time plot as filled rectangles (instead of as lines)

I use the C# Chart in WinForms to plot a variety of variables in real time using the "line" chart type. That works well for analog values, but it's less than ideal for on/off flags.
I'd like to plot multiple flags as horizontal bars that are filled when the value is '1" and clear when the value is '0'.
Before I start coding a solution from scratch, do you have any suggestion on how I could take advantage of any features of the "chart" object to implement this more effectively?
EDIT: I am playing with the Area type, and it seems to be promising.
EDIT 2: That didn't work, because the area in the Area type always starts at the bottom of the chart, hiding the other rows. I am now trying the Range Column type
There are several ways to tackle this.: StackedBars, AreaChart, Annotations but I think by far the simplest is using a LineChartType.
The first issue is: How to create the gaps? The simplest way is to draw them as lines but with Color.Transparent. So instead of using the flag value as our y-value we use it to set the color..
So we could use a function like this:
void AddFlagLine(Chart chart, int series, int flag, int x)
{
Series s = chart.Series[series];
int px = s.Points.AddXY(x, series);
s.Points[px].Color = s.Color;
if (px > 0) s.Points[px - 1].Color = flag == 1 ? s.Color : Color.Transparent;
}
It takes the index of your Series and uses the flag to determine the color; note that the color of a line segment is controlled by the color of the end point.
So if you want to have the line going out from the new point to have its flag color, you need to set it when adding the next one..
This is simple enough and for lines as thick as 1-10 it works fine. But if you want larger widths things get a bit ugly..:
The rounded caps start to get bigger and bigger until they actually touch, flling the gaps more or less.
Unfortunately there seems to be no way to controls the caps-style of the lines. There are many CustomAttributes including DashStyles but not this one. So we have to resort to owner-drawing. This is rather simple for line charts. Here is an example:
The xxxPaint event looks like this:
private void chart_PostPaint(object sender, ChartPaintEventArgs e)
{
Graphics g = e.ChartGraphics.Graphics;
Axis ax = chart.ChartAreas[0].AxisX;
Axis ay = chart.ChartAreas[0].AxisY;
for (int si = 0; si < chart.Series.Count; si++ )
{
Series s = chart.Series[si];
for (int pi = 1; pi < s.Points.Count - 1; pi++)
{
DataPoint dp = s.Points[pi];
int y = (int) ay.ValueToPixelPosition(dp.YValues[0]+1); ///*1*
int x0 = (int)ax.ValueToPixelPosition(ax.Minimum);
int x1 = (int)ax.ValueToPixelPosition(s.Points[pi-1].XValue); ///*2*
int x2 = (int)ax.ValueToPixelPosition(dp.XValue);
x1 = Math.Max(x1, x0);
x2 = Math.Max(x2, x0);
using (Pen pen = new Pen(dp.Color, 40) ///*3*
{ StartCap = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.LineCap.Flat,
EndCap = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.LineCap.Flat })
{
g.DrawLine(pen, x1, y, x2, y);
}
}
}
A few notes:
1 : I have decided to move the the series up by one; this is up to you just as using or turning off the y-axis labels or replacing them by custom labels..
2 : Here we use the previous point's x-position!
3 : Note that instead of hard coding a width of 40 pixels you really should decide on a calculated width. This is an example that almost fills up the area:
int width = (int)( ( ay.ValueToPixelPosition(ay.Minimum) -
ay.ValueToPixelPosition(ay.Maximum)) / (chart7.Series.Count + 2));
You can twist is to fill more or less by adding less or more than 2.
I have turned all BorderWidths to 0 so only the drawn lines show.
I got it:
It turned out to actually be pretty easy; I used the Range Column type.
A) Set-up (done once):
plotChart.Series[chanNo].ChartType = SeriesChartType.RangeColumn;
plotChart.Series[chanNo].CustomProperties = "PointWidth=" + noOfFlags;
PointWidth is required to set the relative width of each rectangle so that it fills the entire width of one data point (if too small, there are gaps in the horizontal bar; if too large, there is overlap). noOfFlags is the number of flags shown (in the example shown above, noOfFlags = 4). (By the way the MSDN documentation is wrong: PointWidth is not limited to 2.)
B) Plotting (done for each new data point):
baseLine--;
int barHeight = flagHigh ? 1 : 0;
plotChart.Series[chanNo].Points.AddXY(pointX, baseLine, baseLine + barHeight);
flagHigh is a bool that is equal to the flag being monitored.
baseLine is decremented for each trace. In the example above, baseLine starts at 4, and is decremented down to 0.
Note that for each data point, RangeColumn requires 2 "Y" values: one for the bottom of the rectangle, one for the top; in the code, I set the bottom Y to the bottom of the row that I use for that particular flag, and the top to 1 above the bottom, to give me a height of 1.

how to check whether a string can fit into richtextbox visible area

I want to divide a very large string into slices so that each slice can fit into the visible area of a richtextbox so that the horizontal scroll bar will not show.
I would like to know how to determine whether a string can fit into the richtextbox's visible area without changing the richtextbox's value.
I searched for the solution and most results I found suggest that MeasureText / MeasureString should be used, but it seems these two function assume there is only one line(not wrapped).
Is there any way to find out the height of a multiple line string which will be set into a richtextbox?
MeasureText and MeasureString functions has overloads that accept textarea width, height and TextFormatFlags(TextBoxControl, WordBreak e.t.c)
You can compare your text size with RichTextBoxControl size
Size stringSize = new Size();
string text = SomeText();
stringSize = TextRenderer.MeasureText(text, richTextBox1.Font, new Size(richTextBox1.Size.Width, richTextBox1.Size.Height), TextFormatFlags.WordBreak);
string r = string.Format("RTB Width : {0}\r\n", richTextBox1.Size.Width);
r += string.Format("RTB Height : {0}\r\n", richTextBox1.Size.Height);
r += string.Format("TEXT Width : {0}\r\n", stringSize.Width);
r += string.Format("TEXT Height : {0}", stringSize.Height);
MessageBox.Show(r);

How to add spikes to line on Winform chart?

I am drawing a line on a graph from numbers read from a text file. There is a number on each line of the file which corresponds to the X co-ordinate while the Y co-ordinate is the line it is on.
The requirements have now changed to include "special events" where if the number on the line is followed by the word special a spike will appear like image below:
Currently the only way I can find is to use a line for each spike, however there could be a large of these special events and so needs to be modular. This seems an efficient and bad way to program it.
Is it possible to add the spikes to the same graph line? Or is it possible to use just one additional line and have it broken (invisible) and only show where the spikes are meant to be seen?
I have looked at using bar graphs but due to other items on the graph I cannot.
The DataPoints of a Line Chart are connected so it is not possble to really break it apart. However each segment leading to a DataPoint can have its own color and that includes Color.Transparent which lends itself to a simple trick..
Without adding extra Series or Annotations, your two questions can be solved like this:
To simply add the 'spikes' you show us in the 2nd graph, all you need to do is to insert 2 suitable datapoints, the 2nd being identical to the point the spike is connected to.
To add an unconnected line you need to 'jump' to its beginning by adding one extra point with a transparent color.
Here are two example methods:
void addSpike(Series s, int index, double spikeWidth)
{
DataPoint dp = s.Points[index];
DataPoint dp1 = new DataPoint(dp.XValue + spikeWidth, dp.YValues[0]);
s.Points.Insert(index+1, dp1);
s.Points.Insert(index+2, dp);
}
void addLine(Series s, int index, double spikeDist, double spikeWidth)
{
DataPoint dp = s.Points[index];
DataPoint dp1 = new DataPoint(dp.XValue + spikeDist, dp.YValues[0]);
DataPoint dp2 = new DataPoint(dp.XValue + spikeWidth, dp.YValues[0]);
DataPoint dp0 = dp.Clone();
dp1.Color = Color.Transparent;
dp2.Color = dp.Color;
dp2.BorderWidth = 2; // optional
dp0.Color = Color.Transparent;
s.Points.Insert(index + 1, dp1);
s.Points.Insert(index + 2, dp2);
s.Points.Insert(index + 3, dp0);
}
You can call them like this:
addSpike(chart1.Series[0], 3, 50d);
addLine(chart1.Series[0], 6, 30d, 80d);
Note that they add 2 or 3 DataPoints to the Points collection!
Of course you can set the Color and width (aka BorderWidth) of the extra lines as you wish and also include them in the params list..
If you want to keep the points collection unchanged you also can simply create one 'spikes series' and add the spike points there. The trick is to 'jump' to the new points with a transparent line!

How to find how much text fits in a textbox without scrolling

I have a relatively large text. I need to add a certain amount of this text to a textbox so that it can be visible without scrolling , then add the rest of the text to another textbox and then another -.-.-.> looping through the text generating as many textboxes as necessary.
My problem is i don't know how to find out how much of the text fits in each textbox. So far the only thing i was able to do is assign a fixed number of characters that fit in a page. But this would not do for different screen resolutions. Is there a way, a trick or a workaround i can use to calculate how much of a text can fit into a textbox with fixed font and fontsize but relative width and height?
int TextLength = 1000, PageStart = 0;
List<TextBox> Pages = new List<TextBox>();
while (PageStart < TextLength)
{
TextBox p = new TextBox();
if (PageStart + PageLength < TextLength)
{
p.PageText = Text.Substring(PageStart, PageLength);
PageStart += PageLength;
Pages.Add(p);
}
else
{
PageLength = TextLength - PageStart;
p.PageText = Text.Substring(PageStart, PageLength);
Pages.Add(p);
break;
}
}
You would probably be better of using a TextBlock. Other than that the TextBlock measuring technique should work for TextBoxes too - how to calculate the textbock height and width in on load if i create textblock from code?
You would need to measure ActualHeight while increasing the amount of text until you go over your limit.

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