Is there a way to word-wrap text in a div?

Question

I know IE has a word-wrap style but I'd like to know if there is a cross browser method of doing so to text in a div.

Preferably CSS but javascript snippets would work ok too

edit: yeah referring to long strings, cheers folks!

Answer 1

As david mentions, DIVs do wrap words by default.

If you are referring to really long strings of text without spaces, what I do is process the string server-side and insert empty spans:

thisIsAreallyLongStringThatIWantTo<span></span>BreakToFitInsideAGivenSpace

It's not exact as there are issues with font-sizing and such. The span option works if the container is variable in size. If it's a fixed width container, you could just go ahead and insert line breaks.

Answer 2

You can try specifying a width for the div, whether it be in pixels, percentages or ems, and at that point the div will remain that width and the text will wrap automatically then within the div.

Answer 3

white-space: pre-wrap

quirksmode.org/css/whitespace.html

Answer 4

Reading the original comment, rutherford is looking for a cross-browser way to wrap unbroken text (inferred by his use of word-wrap for IE, designed to break unbroken strings).

/* Source: http://snipplr.com/view/10979/css-cross-browser-word-wrap */
.wordwrap { 
   white-space: pre-wrap;      /* CSS3 */   
   white-space: -moz-pre-wrap; /* Firefox */    
   white-space: -pre-wrap;     /* Opera <7 */   
   white-space: -o-pre-wrap;   /* Opera 7 */    
   word-wrap: break-word;      /* IE */
}

I've used this class for a bit now, and works like a charm. (note: I've only tested in FireFox and IE)