how to keep double newlines in `textwrap.fill`?

python, word-wrap

Solution

From the documentation:

Note: If `replace_whitespace` is false, newlines may appear in the middle of a line and cause strange output. For this reason, text should be split into paragraphs (using `str.splitlines()` or similar) which are wrapped separately.

So you should do something like:

paragraphs = get_paragraphs(3)
item = 'Abstract: '
paragraphs[0] = item + paragraphs[0]
for idx, paragraph in enumerate(paragraphs):
    rest_indent = " "*len(item)
    start_indent = "" if idx == 0 else rest_indent
    print textwrap.fill(paragraph,initial_indent=start_indent,subsequent_indent=rest_indent,replace_whitespace=False)
    print ""

Alternatively, using a list comprehension:

paragraphs = get_paragraphs(3)
item = 'Abstract: '
text = "\n\n".join(textwrap.fill(p,initial_indent=' '*len(item),subsequent_indent=' '*len(item)) for p in paragraphs)
print item + text.lstrip()

Problem

I have a text that consists of several paragraphs that are divided by double newlines. I'd like to format them to a line width of 70, keeping the new lines and the whole thing should start with one non-indented line with `Abstract: Lorem ipsum ...`. So the whole thing should look like this: ``` Abstract: Magna risus nonummy mollis mattis neque commodo mattis fusce hendrerit nibh. Lorem massa lorem mauris ad orci quam risus viverra aliquet senectus sociis. Donec proin nam dolor neque placerat imperdiet eros ullamcorper egestas cum torquent habitasse. Risus donec odio nostra ac et pede inceptos praesent montes. Neque morbi sit morbi vestibulum suspendisse mauris. Lacus massa mollis. Donec class integer pede ac sed elit. Fames augue magnis sapien natoque nisi. Proin augue mus nisl interdum convallis pellentesque conubia. Class dolor tempor netus suspendisse odio orci vestibulum mus. Netus purus. Lacus metus tempor purus adipiscing faucibus eget maecenas. Velit lacus integer rhoncus primis nunc quis lorem lacus dictumst hendrerit. ``` I am trying to use `textwrap`, but that doesn't produce the desired output. Here's the code: ``` from loremipsum import get_paragraphs import textwrap text = '\n\n'.join(get_paragraphs(3)) item = 'Abstract: ' print textwrap.fill(item+text,initial_indent='',subsequent_indent=' '*len(item),replace_whitespace=False) ``` This works fine for the first paragraph, but the following paragraphs get some strange indentation and short lines like this ``` Class vitae nonummy imperdiet cras blandit fusce. Massa porta metus semper tempor non id viverra eget. Purus morbi lorem semper eget. Proin magna tortor metus magnis. Vitae ipsum. Velit class aliquet tortor dolor parturient ullamcorper libero ac. ``` This happens even if I use `initial_indent=' '*len(item)`. Is this a bug? How can I get what I want?

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