Calculating Text Width In ActionScript And Flex

Question

I'm trying to calculate how WIDE to make my button, based on the text that it will contain, and when I try to google for how to calcuate something as simplistic as the WIDTH OF SOME TEXT, I go cross-eyed just trying to wade through apparently nonsensical esoteric counter-intuitive voodoo. Can anyone out there help simplify for me how I would write a function like this:

public function HowWideWouldThisTextBeIfItWereInThisButton(Text:String,Container:Button):int {
 ...
}

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

So long as you're in a UIComponent, you can use the measureText function.

public function howWideWouldThisTextBeIfItWereInThisButton(text:String,container:Button):int {
   var lineMetrics:TextLineMetrics = container.measureText(text);
   return lineMetrics.width;      
}

That being said, the flex button component should automatically size to the width of the text, if you don't set a width on it. That way if you need the text width, you can just call use the textWidth property.

Answer 2

This works any format, size, font type. Don't forget properties "autoSize" and "wordWrap"!

var tf:TextField = new TextField();
addChild(tf);
tf.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT;
tf.wordWrap = false;
tf.text = "Whatever here";
tf.width = tf.textWidth + 4; // add 2 pixels-gutters left & right

Your button will need to be "tf.width" wide...

Answer 3

Here's how you do it in Spark:

I've modified - simplified - his example a bit here:

var textMetrics:TextLineMetrics = label.measureText( label.text );  
var textWidth:int = textMetrics.width; 

Answer 4

Here's a way that works also:

var tempText:Text = new Text();
tempText.regenerateStyleCache(false);
var textWidth:int = tempText.measureText(*yourstring*).width;