Insert ellipsis (…) into HTML tag if content too wide

Question

I have a webpage with an elastic layout that changes its width if the browser window is resized.

In this layout there are headlines (h2) that will have

Answer 1

I built this code using a number of other posts, with the following enhancements:

1. It uses a binary search to find the text length that is just right.
2. It handles cases where the ellipsis element(s) are initially hidden by setting up a one-shot show event that re-runs the ellipsis code when the item is first displayed. This is handy for master-detail views or tree-views where some items aren't initially displayed.
3. It optionally adds a title attribute with the original text for a hoverover effect.
4. Added display: block to the style, so spans work
5. It uses the ellipsis character instead of 3 periods.
6. It auto-runs the script for anything with the .ellipsis class

CSS:

.ellipsis {
        white-space: nowrap;
        overflow: hidden;
        display: block;
}

.ellipsis.multiline {
        white-space: normal;
}

jquery.ellipsis.js

(function ($) {

    // this is a binary search that operates via a function
    // func should return < 0 if it should search smaller values
    // func should return > 0 if it should search larger values
    // func should return = 0 if the exact value is found
    // Note: this function handles multiple matches and will return the last match
    // this returns -1 if no match is found
    function binarySearch(length, func) {
        var low = 0;
        var high = length - 1;
        var best = -1;
        var mid;

        while (low <= high) {
            mid = ~ ~((low + high) / 2); //~~ is a fast way to convert something to an int
            var result = func(mid);
            if (result < 0) {
                high = mid - 1;
            } else if (result > 0) {
                low = mid + 1;
            } else {
                best = mid;
                low = mid + 1;
            }
        }

        return best;
    }

    // setup handlers for events for show/hide
    $.each(["show", "toggleClass", "addClass", "removeClass"], function () {

        //get the old function, e.g. $.fn.show   or $.fn.hide
        var oldFn = $.fn[this];
        $.fn[this] = function () {

            // get the items that are currently hidden
            var hidden = this.find(":hidden").add(this.filter(":hidden"));

            // run the original function
            var result = oldFn.apply(this, arguments);

            // for all of the hidden elements that are now visible
            hidden.filter(":visible").each(function () {
                // trigger the show msg
                $(this).triggerHandler("show");
            });

            return result;
        };
    });

    // create the ellipsis function
    // when addTooltip = true, add a title attribute with the original text
    $.fn.ellipsis = function (addTooltip) {

        return this.each(function () {
            var el = $(this);

            if (el.is(":visible")) {

                if (el.css("overflow") === "hidden") {
                    var content = el.html();
                    var multiline = el.hasClass('multiline');
                    var tempElement = $(this.cloneNode(true))
                        .hide()
                        .css('position', 'absolute')
                        .css('overflow', 'visible')
                        .width(multiline ? el.width() : 'auto')
                        .height(multiline ? 'auto' : el.height())
                    ;

                    el.after(tempElement);

                    var tooTallFunc = function () {
                        return tempElement.height() > el.height();
                    };

                    var tooWideFunc = function () {
                        return tempElement.width() > el.width();
                    };

                    var tooLongFunc = multiline ? tooTallFunc : tooWideFunc;

                    // if the element is too long...
                    if (tooLongFunc()) {

                        var tooltipText = null;
                        // if a tooltip was requested...
                        if (addTooltip) {
                            // trim leading/trailing whitespace
                            // and consolidate internal whitespace to a single space
                            tooltipText = $.trim(el.text()).replace(/\s\s+/g, ' ');
                        }

                        var originalContent = content;

                        var createContentFunc = function (i) {
                            content = originalContent.substr(0, i);
                            tempElement.html(content + "…");
                        };

                        var searchFunc = function (i) {
                            createContentFunc(i);
                            if (tooLongFunc()) {
                                return -1;
                            }
                            return 0;
                        };

                        var len = binarySearch(content.length - 1, searchFunc);

                        createContentFunc(len);

                        el.html(tempElement.html());

                        // add the tooltip if appropriate
                        if (tooltipText !== null) {
                            el.attr('title', tooltipText);
                        }
                    }

                    tempElement.remove();
                }
            }
            else {
                // if this isn't visible, then hook up the show event
                el.one('show', function () {
                    $(this).ellipsis(addTooltip);
                });
            }
        });
    };

    // ellipsification for items with an ellipsis
    $(document).ready(function () {
        $('.ellipsis').ellipsis(true);
    });

} (jQuery));