General ⇒ Creating a line break in a code sample

[tripwire45]

I've been tasked with creating some code samples in one of the documents I maintain. The easiest way for me to do this is to put the code between two verbatim tags. That way, the code will appear in the PDF exactly the way it was written, special symbols and all.

The one bad thing that happens is that very long lines of code run off the right side of the page. I know there is a special symbol that you can include to indicate when an otherwise single line of code is broken, usually for vertical space, but I can't find out how to insert it in LaTeX...particular within two verbatim tags. I'm attaching part of the code sample and the PDF output to show you the issue at hand (I don't think this one needs a minimal working example).

The standard texts and Googling aren't yielding results this time. Can you help out here? Thanks.

-Trip

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Trip,

did you try the listings package?

Stefan

[localghost]

The listings package should offer suitable options. The documentation shows you how to setup a listing environment that fits your needs. Options for many programming languages are available.


Best regards
Thorsten¹

[tripwire45]

Wow! That was quick. I'll have a look at the documentation and let you know how it works. Thanks.

-Trip

[tripwire45]

Well, it worked...sort of. Here's what I added to the preamble:

Code: Select all

\usepackage{color,listings}
\lstset{breaklines=true,breakindent=0pt,
        prebreak=\mbox{\tiny$\searrow$},
        postbreak=\mbox{{\color{blue}\tiny$\rightarrow$}}}

That allows particularly long lines to be broken with arrows indicating the break. See the attachment "break1.png" for the result. One problem this introduces is some rather odd symbols intermixed with the code. Here's a sample line:

Code: Select all

Response.Write(WebResp.StatusCode & "<br />")

How it renders in the PDF is shown in attachment "symbol1.png".

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Trip,

it looks like a visible space. Did you set showspaces=true? Or try to set it to false.

Stefan

[tripwire45]

Here's what I added:

Code: Select all

\usepackage{color,listings}
\lstset{showspaces=true,breaklines=true,breakindent=0pt,
        prebreak=\mbox{\tiny$\searrow$},
        postbreak=\mbox{{\color{blue}\tiny$\rightarrow$}}}

I'm attaching two images, "showspacestrue.png" and "showspacesfalse.png" to illustrate the differences. Don't quite seem to be working out, though.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Since "<br />" is a string try showstringspaces=false.

Stefan

[tripwire45]

You're a genius, Stefan. It worked. Thanks.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

You could have found it inside the documentation too.

Stefan