PRB: Run-time Error '6' When You Use the TextWidth Method

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This article was previously published under Q298825

SYMPTOMS

When you use the TextWidth method on very large Strings, either a maximum value is returned, or the following error message is generated:

Run-time error '6':

Overflow

To determine which behavior is seen and at what String length it occurs, change the FontSize, FontName, or ScaleMode property.

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To work around this problem, write a routine to recursively call TextWidth on smaller portions of the large String and return the sum. For example, you can call the following function instead of using TextWidth directly:

Function fTextWidth(sInString As String) As Long
    If Len(sInString) > 500 Then
        fTextWidth = Printer.TextWidth(Left(sInString, 500)) + _
                     fTextWidth(Right(sInString, Len(sInString) - 500))
    Else
        fTextWidth = fTextWidth + Printer.TextWidth(sInString)
    End If 
End Function

If you are not using TextWidth with the Printer object, substitute the correct object for Printer. This function handles large or small Strings without problems.

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MORE INFORMATION

You can use the GetTextExtentPoint32 function to retrieve the text height and width, but this is also limited under Microsoft Windows 95 and Microsoft Windows 98. The function that is provided in the "Resolution" section should always work.

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Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Create a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.

Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Form1:

Private Sub Form_Click()
 Dim TWidth As Long, THeight As Long
 Dim Msg As String

  Me.FontName = "MS Sans Serif"   ' Default
  Me.FontSize = 8.25              ' Default
  Debug.Print Me.FontName, Me.FontSize
  Msg = String(4682, "A")   ' 4681 works

  THeight = TextHeight(Msg)
  TWidth = TextWidth(Msg)   ' May cause Overflow error.
  Debug.Print "TextHeight = "; THeight, "TextWidth = "; TWidth
End Sub

If the Immediate window is not open, press the CTRL+G key combination to open it.
Run the project, and click on the form. Notice that run-time error 6 occurs.
Stop the project, change the number of characters in the String function from 4682 to 4681, and repeat the test. The call succeeds and the following information appears in the Immediate window:
```
MS Sans Serif  8.25 
TextHeight =  195           TextWidth =  491505
						
```

For some fonts and sizes on Windows 95, Windows 98, and Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), TextWidth appears to return a maximum value without raising an error. For other fonts and sizes, the "Overflow" error is raised.

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