delphi - Determine Width of TLabel -

hello stack overflow users

i have tgroupbox tlabel in it. tlabel want display surname , names of candidate. candidates have more 1 name, three, , when happens, tlabel doesn't fit inside tgroupbox. when happens, display surname, first name, , rest initials.

in order this, need know whether tlabel going fit if values assigned it. in other words, need determine width of tlabel going before assigning values caption property, bad programming display variable data.

any suggestions?

in vcl, tlabel uses win32 api drawtext() function calculate text width, using getdc() hdc of screen , selectobject() select current font hdc. have same in own code, eg:

// set label1.autosize false , label1.width // max width ui accept label1 be...  function willfitinlabel(label: tlabel; const s: string): boolean; var   r: trect;   c: tcanvas;   dc: hdc; begin   r := rect(0, 0, label.width, 0);   c := tcanvas.create;   try     dc := getdc(0);     try       c.handle := dc;       try         c.font := label1.font;         windows.drawtext(dc, pchar(s), length(s), r, dt_singleline or dt_calcrect);               c.handle := 0;       end;           releasedc(0, dc);     end;       c.free;   end;   result := (r.width <= label.width); end;  var   names: string; begin   names := ...;   if willfitinlabel(label1, names)     label1.caption := names   else     ... end;