Echo a long string with specified start column for new lines - windows

Question

I am writing a small console application. This app should print a help when -h is passed. This is what I'm trying to get:
Program that prints help.
Usage:
prg [OPTIONS]
Options:
-h - print help.
-x - some very very very very very very very very very very very very very very
very very very very long parameter description.
-y - another very very very very very very very very very very very very very
very very very very long parameter description.
I'm using echo. -x - {long description here} to print parameter description. And of course when the string is too long it is printed like this:
-x - some very very very very very very very very very very very very
very very very very long parameter description.
So the question is how can I print a long string with something like left border specified?

Answer 1

#ECHO Off
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
for /f %%I in ('powershell ^(Get-Host^).UI.RawUI.WindowSize.width') do set width=%%I
SET "spaces= "
:splp
IF "!spaces:~%width%!"=="" SET spaces=%spaces%%spaces%&GOTO splp
CALL :display 0 "Program that prints help."
CALL :display 0 "Usage:"
CALL :display 2 "prg [OPTIONS]"
CALL :display 0
CALL :display 0 "Options:"
CALL :display 2 "-x" 5 "- some very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very long parameter description."
CALL :display 2 "-y" 5 "- another very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very long parameter description."
GOTO :EOF
:display
SET "remainder="
SET "line=!spaces:~0,%1!"
IF "%~2"=="" GOTO write
IF "%3"=="" SET "line=%line%%~2"&GOTO write
SET /a indent=%1+%3
SET "remainder=%~2%spaces%"
SET "line=%line%!remainder:~0,%3!
SET "remainder=%~4"
:remainlp
SET /a eol=width-indent-1
:seteollp
SET "eolchar=!remainder:~%eol%,1!"
IF NOT DEFINED eolchar SET "line=%line%%remainder%"&set "remainder="&goto write
IF NOT "%eolchar%"==" " set /a eol-=1&GOTO seteollp
SET "line=%line%!remainder:~0,%eol%!
SET /a eol+=1
set "remainder=!remainder:~%eol%!"
:write
ECHO(%line%
IF NOT DEFINED remainder GOTO :EOF
SET "line=!spaces:~0,%indent%!"
GOTO remainlp
I'll claim no originality for the magic powershell line - it came from Rojo's response here

Answer 2

Have you tried using tabs?
For example:
echo.^ -x - some very very very very very very very very very very
echo.^ ^ very very very very very very very
echo.^ ^ very long parameter description.
I've used the '^' character to show where the tabs are and had to split the message over a few lines to stop the word wrapping.
Here is the script I just tried (option x uses tabs and option y does not)
#echo OFF
echo. Usage:
echo. prg [OPTIONS]
echo.
echo. Options:
echo. -h - print help.
echo. -x - some very very very very very very very very very very
echo. very very very very very very very
echo. very long parameter description.
echo. -y - another very very very very very very very very very very very very very
echo. very very very very long parameter description.
And I get the following output (option x uses tabs and option y does not)
C:\Temp>usage.bat
Usage:
prg [OPTIONS]
Options:
-h - print help.
-x - some very very very very very very very very very very
very very very very very very very
very long parameter description.
-y - another very very very very very very very very very very very
very very
very very very very long parameter description.

Answer 3

echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set "textx=some very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very long parameter description."
REM find screen widht (subtract 8 for a leading tab and two for a right "border" :
for /f "tokens=2 delims=: " %%i in ('mode^|find "Columns"') do set /a colums=%%i-10
call :wrap "-x" "%textx%"
call :wrap "-y" "another quite quite quite quite quite quite quite quite quite quite quite quite quite quite quite quite quite long parameter description."
exit /b
:wrap <option> <text>
set "text=%~2"
set /p ".=%~1"<nul
for /l %%i in (0,%colums%,1000) do echo. !text:~%%i,%colums%!|findstr ".."
goto :eof
NOTE: there is a between the echo. and !text....
You may have to replace Columns in find "Columns" with the correct string (it's language dependent)
I subtracted 10 from the screen width: 8 for the leading and two to end the line two chars before the windows ends.
1000 is the max length of the string. Adapt as needed. (the higher the value, the slower the output)
|findstr ".." supresses the output of empty lines
This has a few disadvantages:
there is no space in front of -x (set does not support it)
It will wrap at the end of the line even if it's in the middle of a word. Doing a "word wrap" could be done, but with a lot more code.
It has problems with special chars (for example &, !, |)