word_wrap(text, line_width = 80) public

Wraps the text into lines no longer than line_width width. This method breaks on the first whitespace character that does not exceed line_width (which is 80 by default).

Examples

  word_wrap('Once upon a time', 4)
  # => Once\nupon\na\ntime

  word_wrap('Once upon a time', 8)
  # => Once upon\na time

  word_wrap('Once upon a time')
  # => Once upon a time

  word_wrap('Once upon a time', 1)
  # => Once\nupon\na\ntime
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October 14, 2008 - (>= v2.0.0)
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Wrapping peculiarities as of 2.x

In Rails 2.x word_wrap has been improved so that it no longer consumes multiple line-breaks or leading & trailing line-breaks. 

  word_wrap("\nOnce upon a time\n\nThe End\n")
  # => \nOnce upon a time\n\nThe End

However it still doesn’t break long words 

  "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".length
  # => 30
  word_wrap("\nOnce upon a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious time", 15)
  # => \nOnce upon a\nsupercalifragilisticexpialidocious\ntime
October 14, 2008 - (v1.0.0 - v1.2.6)
0 thanks

Wrapping peculiarities

word_wrap will consume multiple line-breaks as well as leading & trailing line-breaks. 

  word_wrap("\nOnce upon a time\n\nThe End\n")
  # => Once upon a time\nThe End

word_wrap will NOT break long words 

  "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".length
  # => 34
  word_wrap("\nOnce upon a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious time", 15)
  # => Once upon a\nsupercalifragilisticexpialidocious\ntime

If you want a function that will break long words & maintain multiple line-breaks try this alternative. Note it does add a line break at the end of the output. 

  def breaking_wrap_wrap(txt, col = 80)
    txt.gsub(/(.{1,#{col}})( +|$\n?)|(.{1,#{col}})/,
      "\\1\\3\n")
  end

  breaking_wrap_wrap("\nOnce upon a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious time", 15)
  # => \nOnce upon a\nsupercalifragil\nisticexpialidoc\nious time\n

Regex-based code from http://blog.macromates.com/2006/wrapping-text-with-regular-expressions/