Python textwrap Library - How to Preserve Line Breaks?

Question

When using Python\'s textwrap library, how can I turn this:

short line,

long line xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
         


        

Answer 1

Here is a little module that can wrap text, break lines, handle extra indents (eg.a bulleted list), and replace characters/words with markdown!

class TextWrap_Test:
    def __init__(self):
        self.Replace={'Sphagnum':'$Sphagnum$','Equisetum':'$Equisetum$','Carex':'$Carex$',
                      'Salix':'$Salix$','Eriophorum':'$Eriophorum$'}
    def Wrap(self,Text_to_fromat,Width):
        Text = []
        for line in Text_to_fromat.splitlines():
            if line[0]=='-':
                wrapped_line = textwrap.fill(line,Width,subsequent_indent='  ')
            if line[0]=='*':
                wrapped_line = textwrap.fill(line,Width,initial_indent='  ',subsequent_indent='    ')
            Text.append(wrapped_line)
        Text = '\n\n'.join(text for text in Text)

        for rep in self.Replace:
            Text = Text.replace(rep,self.Replace[rep])
        return(Text)


Par1 = "- Fish Island is a low center polygonal peatland on the transition"+\
" between the Mackenzie River Delta and the Tuktoyaktuk Coastal Plain.\n* It"+\
" is underlain by continuous permafrost, peat deposits exceede the annual"+\
" thaw depth.\n* Sphagnum dominates the polygon centers with a caonpy of Equisetum and sparse"+\
" Carex.  Dwarf Salix grows allong the polygon rims.  Eriophorum and carex fill collapsed ice wedges."
TW=TextWrap_Test()
print(TW.Wrap(Par1,Text_W))

Will output:

• Fish Island is a low center polygonal peatland on the transition between the Mackenzie River Delta and the Tuktoyaktuk Coastal Plain.

  • It is underlain by continuous permafrost, peat deposits exceede the annual thaw depth.

  • $Sphagnum$ dominates the polygon centers with a caonpy of $Equisetum$ and sparse $Carex$. Dwarf $Salix$ grows allong the polygon rims. $Eriophorum$ and carex fill collapsed ice wedges.

Characters between the $$ would be in italics if you were working in matplotlib for instance, but the $$ won't count towards the line spacing since they are added after!

So if you did:

fig,ax = plt.subplots(1,1,figsize = (10,7))
ax.text(.05,.9,TW.Wrap(Par1,Text_W),fontsize = 18,verticalalignment='top')

ax.get_xaxis().set_visible(False)
ax.get_yaxis().set_visible(False)

You'd get: