How can i somehow wrap the long string item in my Dropdownlist

raven daniel

i just need a pointer or reference to something im looking for:
I have a dropdownlist, one of the items are very long so if i have to select that item, it widens my dropdownlist and pushes other controls to the right.

1)Is there a way to wrap the text? or get around it? or
2)Is there a way i can add a
to that one item?

I cant widen the box, and i cant let the item's text be cut, by giving the box a fixed width.
Thank you for your time in advance.

8 Replies

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Vulpes15y ago
This approach won't work if you bind the DDL directly to the database.

You need to get the data into a string array or List first, so you can manipulate it first before loading it into the DDL.
raven daniel15y ago
sorry im new and just started. Now my one item in my dropdownlist is pulled from the database and displays like this
"Wood factory Funitures Housine and insurances industry insurance etc"

It should display "Wood factory funritures housine and /n
unsurances industry insurance ect"

over two lines. due to the nature of the data and the requirements from the client, i cant change my dropdownlist to any other control, it must be done in the ddlist could you take me step by step how i would do this. ajax,css, C#, html anything to help me accomplish this?
Thank you for your patience.
Vulpes15y ago
This should give you a basic idea what I mean though I'm just printing the (full) text of the selected item to a label for illustration:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
string[] items = { "First Item with a very", "...long name", "Second Item", "Third Item" };
foreach (string item in items) DropDownList1.Items.Add(item);
}
}

protected void DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
switch (DropDownList1.SelectedIndex)
{
case 0:
case 1:
Label1.Text = DropDownList1.Items[0].Text + " " + DropDownList1.Items[1].Text.Substring(3);
return;
default:
Label1.Text = DropDownList1.SelectedItem.Text;
return;
}
}
raven daniel15y ago
if all else fails, then [...] this sounds like an idea i want to attempt, do you have a code sample of this perhaps?
Vulpes15y ago
Check out this link (http://vishaljoshi.blogspot.com/2011/06/announcing-html5-css3-support-for.html) regarding adding CSS3 support to VS 2010 SP1, though I've no idea whether that will enable you to do what you want or not.

If all else fails, then the only other thing I can think of would be to split it over multiple lines yourself and then write code so that whichever line is selected the same thing happens.

You could indent the additional lines with dots or non-breaking spaces to give a visual clue that they're part of an earlier line.

Unfortunately, it's not possible to select multiple items in a DDL at once so you wouldn't be able to write code to select the other lines when a particular one was selected.
raven daniel15y ago
im reading something about CSS3 supports word wrapping, maby ill get a solution like that. Where can i get CSS3?
raven daniel15y ago
Unfortunately not, that long item is something the client uses, which has such a long name. So is there no way i can make that item appear on two lines rather than one? like i might have read somewhere, use javascript, but im not finding anything. Maby if you got an idea on "making your own custom dropdownlist that supports this" or something, im getting so clueless
Vulpes15y ago
I don't think that either of those things are possible.

Can't you just find a way to abbreviate the long item so that it will fit into the box?

Even something like this might be a reasonable solution:

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

The quick brown fox .... dog