How do I set a maximum length for text in pygame? - pygame

Question

I've got a problem; I have boxes with text inside. The boxes have set sizes, but the text in them can chainge. I don't want the text going outside of them. Is there a build-in way or another way to get the text to stop at the edge of an box?

Answer 1

Before you blit text on the screen you can check it dimensions with get_rect() method. And depending on it you can choose whether to display it or not. I made a simple example:
import pygame as pg
pg.init()
clock = pg.time.Clock()
win = pg.display.set_mode((800, 600))
FONT = pg.font.SysFont("Times New Roman", 20, 1, 1)
class Field(pg.Rect):
def __init__(self, rect, text=None):
super().__init__(rect)
self.text = text
def get_text(self):
return self.text
def check_bounds(self, text_rect):
if text_rect.width > self.width:
return False
return True
def redraw(win):
win.fill(pg.Color("white"))
pg.draw.rect(win, pg.Color("green"), button_1, 1)
text = FONT.render("Some textdasdsdsafdss", 1, pg.Color("red"))
if button_1.check_bounds(text.get_rect()):
win.blit(text, (button_1.x, button_1.y))
else:
text = FONT.render("Text is too long!", 1, pg.Color("red"))
win.blit(text, (button_1.x, button_1.y))
pg.display.update()
def main_loop(win):
clock.tick(10)
for event in pg.event.get():
if event.type == pg.QUIT:
return False
redraw(win)
return True
button_1 = Field((100, 100, 170, 70))
while main_loop(win):
pass
pg.quit()
I hope this answers your question
EDIT: Answer for the question in comments by OP
Trim the user input to fit the textbox, add the following:
if len(user_input) >= MAX_STRING_LEN:
user_input = user_input[0:MAX_STRING_LEN]
text = FONT.render(user_input, 1, pg.Color("red"))
user_input is the string you loaded from the file and the MAX_STRING_LEN is a constant. If you have textboxes with different sizes you will need more constants.
In this case you do not need else part which blits "text is too long".