Text Area: size (height) to fit text, via code

Anvil Q&A
1

I’m updating a TextArea programmatically, from a data table. Of course, when this happens, the TextArea size remains fixed. Which is exactly right, in some cases.

In other cases, the TextArea should grow/shrink to match the new text. Is there a way for my code to do that?

2

Ooh, nice idea! You can approximate it by counting how many characters are in the TextArea, based on how long its text is and how many characters fit on a line (and how many \n characters are in it). You can then use this to update the TextArea’s height property (which is in pixels).

I’ll also note this as a feature request :slight_smile:

3

That looks tricky. In a long paragraph, it’s going to change from one line to the next, unless I use a monospaced font. And even then, it’s going to change dynamically, as the user resizes their browser window.

As an interim step, perhaps it would be best for me to out-and-out replace the existing TextArea with a brand new one. I’ll try it.

4

Good point! I’ve baked this into the next version of Anvil. In the next 24-48 hours, you will notice that TextAreas now have an auto_expand property :smiley:

1 Like
5

You’ve beat me to it! Thank you!

Naming suggestion: auto_size or size_to_fit (since it will auto-shrink as well as auto-expand).

6

Actually, it won’t auto-shrink to smaller than the height specified in the designer, so I’m going to stick with auto_expand :slight_smile:

7

Thanks for clarifying.:slightly_smiling_face: