WrapURI ( uri ; maxchars ; linebreak_char )

Takes a long URI (a.k.a. URL) and breaks it into multiple lines

Average rating: 4.5 (41 votes) Log in to vote

Anthony Reimer - Show more from this author

Sample input:

WrapURI ( "www.example.com/thisisareallylongURIthatneedstobesplit/withouttoomuchhassle.html" ; 20 ; "¶")

Sample output:

www.example.com/
thisisareallylongURI
thatneedstobesplit/
withouttoomuchhassle
.html

Function definition: (Copy & paste into FileMaker's Edit Custom Function window)

If ( Length ( uri ) > maxchar ;
   Let ( [ 
      current_line = Left ( uri ; maxchar + 1) ;
      break_char = "/" ;
      break_count = PatternCount ( current_line ; break_char ) ;
      break_char = If ( break_count = 0 ;
         "." ; 
         break_char 
      ) ;
      break_count = If (break_count = 0 ;
         PatternCount ( current_line ; break_char ) ;
         break_count
      ) ;
      last_break_position = If ( break_count = 0 ; 
         maxchar ;
         Position ( current_line ; break_char ; 1 ; break_count )
      ) ;
      last_break_position = If ( last_break_position > maxchar ; 
         maxchar ;
         last_break_position
      ) ;
      current_line = Left ( current_line ; last_break_position ) ;
      remaining_uri = Right ( uri ; Length ( uri ) - last_break_position )
   ]; 
   current_line & linebreak_char & WrapURI ( remaining_uri ; maxchar ; linebreak_char ) ) ;
   uri
)

This function is similar to WordWrap and Abscind in concept (and borrows liberally from same) but is specific to wrapping URIs (a.k.a. URLs). It tries to break the line at the nearest slash, and if that is not successful, it looks for the nearest dot. If both fail, it does a hard break at whatever the character limit (maxchars) is. It inserts whatever character(s) you supply in the third parameter (linebreak_char) inbetween these "lines."

I needed this function to break some URIs being displayed on a web page (fed by FileMaker) that were in a narrow sidebar. I used "
" as the linebreak_char to generate the correct (X)HTML to be displayed in the link. My FileMaker field calculation looked something like this:

If ( Left ( uri ; 4 ) = "http"; ""; "http://") &
uri & "\">" & WrapURI ( uri ; 20 ; "
") & ""

With the uri in the sample input, this calculation would generate:

www.example.com/
thisisareallylongURI
thatneedstobesplit/
withouttoomuchhassle
.html

The link would then look like the sample output.

Comments

Note: these functions are not guaranteed or supported by BrianDunning.com. Please contact the individual developer with any questions or problems.

WrapURI ( uri ; maxchars ; linebreak_char )

Comments

Support this website.

Support this website.