Word wrap to X lines instead of maximum width (Least raggedness)

Question

Does anyone know a good algorithm to word wrap an input string to a specified number of lines rather than a set width. Basically to achieve the minimum width for X lines.

Answer 1

A way of solvng this problem would be using dynamic programming, You can solve this problem using dynamic programming, cf Minimum raggedness algorithm. I used some of the informations you add when you eddited your post with : Algorithm to divide text into 3 evenly-sized groups

---

Notations:

Let name your text document="word1 word2 .... wordp"

n= number of line required

LineWidth=len(document)/n

---

Cost function:

First you need to define a cost function of having word[i] to word[j] in the same line , you can take the same as the one as the one on wikipedia, with p=2 for example:

It represent the distance between the objective length of a line and the actual lenght.

The total cost function for the optimal solution can be defined with the following recursiion relation:

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Solving the problem:

You can solve this problem using dynamic programming. I took the code from the link you gave, and changed it a so you see what the program is using.

1. At stage k you add words to line k.
2. Then you look at the optimal cost of having word i to j at line k.
3. Once you've gone from line 1 to n, you tacke the smallest cost in the last step and you have your optimal result:

Here is the result from the code:

D=minragged('Just testing to see how this works.')

number of words: 7
------------------------------------
stage : 0
------------------------------------
word i to j in line 0       TotalCost (f(j))
------------------------------------
i= 0 j= 0           121.0
i= 0 j= 1           49.0
i= 0 j= 2           1.0
i= 0 j= 3           16.0
i= 0 j= 4           64.0
i= 0 j= 5           144.0
i= 0 j= 6           289.0
i= 0 j= 7           576.0
------------------------------------
stage : 1
------------------------------------
word i to j in line 1       TotalCost (f(j))
------------------------------------
i= 0 j= 0           242.0
i= 0 j= 1           170.0
i= 0 j= 2           122.0
i= 0 j= 3           137.0
i= 0 j= 4           185.0
i= 0 j= 5           265.0
i= 0 j= 6           410.0
i= 0 j= 7           697.0
i= 1 j= 2           65.0
i= 1 j= 3           50.0
i= 1 j= 4           58.0
i= 1 j= 5           98.0
i= 1 j= 6           193.0
i= 1 j= 7           410.0
i= 2 j= 4           26.0
i= 2 j= 5           2.0
i= 2 j= 6           17.0
i= 2 j= 7           122.0
i= 3 j= 7           80.0
------------------------------------
stage : 2
------------------------------------
word i to j in line 2       TotalCost (f(j))
------------------------------------
i= 0 j= 7           818.0
i= 1 j= 7           531.0
i= 2 j= 7           186.0
i= 3 j= 7           114.0
i= 4 j= 7           42.0
i= 5 j= 7           2.0
reversing list
------------------------------------
Just testing        12
to see how      10
this works.         11

• *There fore the best choice is to have words 5 to 7 in last line.(cf stage2)
• then words 2 to 5 in second line (cf stage1)
• then words 0 to 2 in first line (cf stage 0).*

Reverse this and you get:

Just testing          12
to see how          10
this works.          11

Here is the code to print the reasonning,(in python sorry I don't use C#...but I someone actually translated the code in C#) :

def minragged(text, n=3):


    P=2
    words = text.split()
    cumwordwidth = [0]
    # cumwordwidth[-1] is the last element
    for word in words:
        cumwordwidth.append(cumwordwidth[-1] + len(word))
    totalwidth = cumwordwidth[-1] + len(words) - 1  # len(words) - 1 spaces
    linewidth = float(totalwidth - (n - 1)) / float(n)  # n - 1 line breaks

    print "number of words:", len(words)
    def cost(i, j):
        """
        cost of a line words[i], ..., words[j - 1] (words[i:j])
        """
        actuallinewidth = max(j - i - 1, 0) + (cumwordwidth[j] - cumwordwidth[i])
        return (linewidth - float(actuallinewidth)) ** P

    """
    printing the reasoning and reversing the return list
    """
    F={} # Total cost function

    for stage in range(n):
        print "------------------------------------"
        print "stage :",stage
        print "------------------------------------"
        print "word i to j in line",stage,"\t\tTotalCost (f(j))"
        print "------------------------------------"


        if stage==0:
            F[stage]=[]
            i=0
            for j in range(i,len(words)+1):
                print "i=",i,"j=",j,"\t\t\t",cost(i,j)
                F[stage].append([cost(i,j),0])
        elif stage==(n-1):
            F[stage]=[[float('inf'),0] for i in range(len(words)+1)]
            for i in range(len(words)+1):
                    j=len(words)
                    if F[stage-1][i][0]+cost(i,j)<F[stage][j][0]: #calculating min cost (cf f formula)
                        F[stage][j][0]=F[stage-1][i][0]+cost(i,j)
                        F[stage][j][1]=i
                        print "i=",i,"j=",j,"\t\t\t",F[stage][j][0]            
        else:
            F[stage]=[[float('inf'),0] for i in range(len(words)+1)]
            for i in range(len(words)+1):
                for j in range(i,len(words)+1):
                    if F[stage-1][i][0]+cost(i,j)<F[stage][j][0]:
                        F[stage][j][0]=F[stage-1][i][0]+cost(i,j)
                        F[stage][j][1]=i
                        print "i=",i,"j=",j,"\t\t\t",F[stage][j][0]

    print 'reversing list'
    print "------------------------------------"
    listWords=[]
    a=len(words)
    for k in xrange(n-1,0,-1):#reverse loop from n-1 to 1
        listWords.append(' '.join(words[F[k][a][1]:a]))
        a=F[k][a][1]
    listWords.append(' '.join(words[0:a]))
    listWords.reverse()

    for line in listWords:
        print line, '\t\t',len(line)

    return listWords

Answer 2

Here is the accepted solution from Algorithm to divide text into 3 evenly-sized groups converted to C#:

static List<string> Minragged(string text, int n = 3)
{
    var words = text.Split();

    var cumwordwidth = new List<int>();
    cumwordwidth.Add(0);

    foreach (var word in words)
        cumwordwidth.Add(cumwordwidth[cumwordwidth.Count - 1] + word.Length);

    var totalwidth = cumwordwidth[cumwordwidth.Count - 1] + words.Length - 1;

    var linewidth = (double)(totalwidth - (n - 1)) / n;

    var cost = new Func<int, int, double>((i, j) =>
    {
        var actuallinewidth = Math.Max(j - i - 1, 0) + (cumwordwidth[j] - cumwordwidth[i]);
        return (linewidth - actuallinewidth) * (linewidth - actuallinewidth);
    });

    var best = new List<List<Tuple<double, int>>>();

    var tmp = new List<Tuple<double, int>>();
    best.Add(tmp);
    tmp.Add(new Tuple<double, int>(0.0f, -1));
    foreach (var word in words)
        tmp.Add(new Tuple<double, int>(double.MaxValue, -1));

    for (int l = 1; l < n + 1; ++l)
    {
        tmp = new List<Tuple<double, int>>();
        best.Add(tmp);
        for (int j = 0; j < words.Length + 1; ++j)
        {
            var min = new Tuple<double, int>(best[l - 1][0].Item1 + cost(0, j), 0);
            for (int k = 0; k < j + 1; ++k)
            {
                var loc = best[l - 1][k].Item1 + cost(k, j);
                if (loc < min.Item1 || (loc == min.Item1 && k < min.Item2))
                    min = new Tuple<double, int>(loc, k);
            }
            tmp.Add(min);
        }
    }

    var lines = new List<string>();
    var b = words.Length;

    for (int l = n; l > 0; --l)
    {
        var a = best[l][b].Item2;
        lines.Add(string.Join(" ", words, a, b - a));
        b = a;
    }

    lines.Reverse();
    return lines;
}