How do you set the proper width of a dynamic UITextField before assigning text?

Question

In Flex 3.2, I'm creating a UITextField, then measuring text that I'm about to assign to that field's text property. I then use those metrics to set the size of the field. However, the calculated width is not wide enough to accommodate the text. Is there a different order to achieve proper measurement or am I seeing a problem with the measureText() function? How can I get accurate results?

// UITextField's default size appears to be 100x100
// Measure the text then set width and height
var tf:UITextFormat = uiTextField.getUITextFormat();
var tlm:TextLineMetrics = tf.measureText(this.labelText);

// Text within the field is clipped unless 'padding' is added to the size
// Flex Documentation specifies there is a 2 px gutter on each side, so
// the expected padding would be 4 px.  However, clipping occurs, for 
// "Hello, World" up to 9 px.
uiTextField.width = tlm.width + 9; 
uiTextField.height = tlm.height + 4;
uiTextField.border = true;
uiTextField.name = "uiTextField";      
uiTextField.text = this.labelText;

Answer 1

I've had all sorts of trouble with measuring the width and heights of textFields before. It looks like you just want to autosize the textField. Have you tried:

uiTextField.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT;

???

Answer 2

Unfortunately, Flex often gets very confused when it tries to dynamically get a textWidth. Even worse, it is difficult to reliably catch the error and have Flex update itself correctly. The best options I've found:

1. Hack it manually -- mostly reliable and has the benefit of happening before everything has finished rendering: mx.controls.Text hack AS3 describes a way to do this.
2. Use callLater or an FlexEvent.CREATION_COMPLETE event listener -- this is less reliable, but it is definitely not a hack
3. Use setTimeout with a delay of less than 1/10 a second ( I like 25-50 milliseconds ) -- I have found this the most reliable, but it may cause a small "blip" on the screen (generally not terribly noticeable for short code).