:help lib.nvim-strings_width

*lib.nvim-strings_width.txt*  *lib.nvim-strings_width*  Display-width arithmetic

Author:  lib.lua.strings.width maintainers
License: Same as Neovim

---

CONTENTS *strings_width-contents*

1. Introduction ............................ |strings_width-introduction|
2. Usage ................................... |strings_width-usage|
3. API Reference ........................... |strings_width-api|
4. Padding ................................. |strings_width-padding|
5. Accuracy and limits ..................... |strings_width-accuracy|

---

INTRODUCTION *strings_width-introduction*

lib.lua.strings.width measures strings in terminal COLUMNS, as opposed to
bytes (#str) or codepoints.

The rest of lib.lua.strings measures in bytes, which is correct for ASCII
and wrong for everything else. Three different numbers describe the same
string:

  #"日本"                            -- 6   (bytes)
  <two codepoints>                   -- 2   (characters)
  width.display_width("日本")        -- 4   (columns)

core.pad_end and wrap.center_text pad by byte count, so any column
containing CJK text, an emoji or a tab comes out misaligned. This module is
the width-aware counterpart. It is ADDITIVE: the byte-based originals keep
their cheaper, ASCII-correct behavior for callers that never see non-ASCII.

Inside Neovim, prefer |strdisplaywidth()|.

vim.fn.strdisplaywidth() is authoritative: it honors 'ambiwidth',
'listchars' and the complete Unicode tables. This module exists because
lib.lua.* is editor-independent by definition and cannot call vim.fn --
and because vim.fn is unusable in a fast-event context (a |uv| timer, an
fs_event callback), where a pure-Lua helper still works.

---

USAGE *strings_width-usage*

  local width = require("lib.lua.strings.width")

  width.display_width("日本")                     -- 4
  width.display_width("a\tb")                     -- 9
  width.display_width("a\tb", { tabstop = 4 })    -- 5

  width.char_width(0x65E5)                        -- 2  (CJK ideograph)
  width.char_width(0x0301)                        -- 0  (combining accent)

  width.truncate("日本語テキスト", 6)              -- "日本語", 6
  width.truncate("abcdefgh", 5, { ellipsis = "..." })  -- "ab...", 5

  width.pad_end("日本", 6)                         -- "日本  "

Via the aggregator, the three width-only names are flattened:

  local strings = require("lib.lua.strings")
  strings.display_width("日本")   -- 4
  strings.char_width(0x65E5)      -- 2
  strings.truncate("abc", 2)      -- "ab", 2

---

API REFERENCE *strings_width-api*

width.char_width({cp})                                     *width.char_width()*

    Columns occupied by a single codepoint.

Returns:

        0   Combining marks, zero-width spaces/joiners, variation
            selectors, C0 controls, DEL, and tab (whose width is
            column-dependent -- see display_width).
        2   East Asian Wide and Fullwidth (UAX #11), plus the emoji
            blocks terminals render double-width.
        1   Everything else.

width.display_width({str}, {opts})                      *width.display_width()*

    Columns occupied by {str}.

    Tabs advance to the next multiple of opts.tabstop (default 8), which
    is why this is NOT simply the sum of char_width over the string: a
    tab's width depends on the column it starts at.

Options:

        {tabstop}  (integer)  Columns per tab stop. Default 8.

width.truncate({str}, {max_cols}, {opts})                    *width.truncate()*

    Truncate {str} to at most {max_cols} display columns, never splitting a
    character in half.

    Returns the truncated string and its display width.

Options:

        {tabstop}   (integer)  Columns per tab stop. Default 8.
        {ellipsis}  (string)   Appended WITHIN the budget when the string
                               is cut, so the result still fits {max_cols}
                               rather than overflowing it. Default "".

    A double-width character that would straddle the limit is dropped
    whole, so the result can be one column narrower than {max_cols}:

      width.truncate("日本語", 5)   -- "日本", 4

    If the ellipsis alone is wider than {max_cols}, the result is empty
    rather than over-wide.

---

PADDING *strings_width-padding*

width.pad_start({str}, {width}, {opts})                     *width.pad_start()*
width.pad_end({str}, {width}, {opts})                         *width.pad_end()*
width.pad_center({str}, {width}, {opts})                   *width.pad_center()*

    Column-aware counterparts to lib.lua.strings.core's byte-based
    pad_start/pad_end/pad_center. An odd remainder in pad_center
    goes to the right, matching the core version.

    These are deliberately NOT flattened onto the lib.lua.strings
    aggregator: those three names already belong to the byte-based
    versions, and silently swapping their semantics would change existing
    callers' output for any non-ASCII input. Reach them through the
    submodule:

      local strings = require("lib.lua.strings")

      strings.width.pad_end("日本", 6)   -- "日本  "  (column-aware)
      strings.pad_end("日本", 6)         -- "日本"     (byte-based)

---

ACCURACY AND LIMITS *strings_width-accuracy*

The width tables are a hand-maintained approximation of the Unicode data,
not a generated copy of it. They cover the ranges that actually turn up in
source, filenames and UI strings: Hangul, the CJK blocks and extensions,
Yi, fullwidth forms, the common emoji blocks; and for zero width, the
combining-mark blocks, zero-width spaces/joiners and variation selectors.

A codepoint outside those ranges is measured as single-width rather than
raising, so an exotic wide character is under-measured.

Not handled:

- 'ambiwidth' -- East Asian Ambiguous characters always count as 1.
- Grapheme clusters -- an emoji built from several codepoints joined by
  ZWJ is measured per component (the ZWJ itself is 0, the components are
  2 each), which over-counts relative to what a terminal draws.
- 'listchars'/'display' -- how Neovim renders a tab or a control character
  in a real window is a window-local setting this module cannot see.

For any of those, use |strdisplaywidth()| inside Neovim instead.

See also:

    |strdisplaywidth()|  Neovim's authoritative width function
    |lib.nvim-modules|   the full module index