How to enable in-word breaking without a hyphen?

Question

Consider the following ridiculous example:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

\end{document}

This produces an overfull hbox. I want to allow the word to break at any point, without a hyphen.

Of course, I can work around like this:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a\hspace{0pt}a

\end{document}

But this is far too ugly.

(I want to enable this only for a particular word, because I don't want my whole document to break.)

By "without a hyphen", do you mean there should not be a hyphen even if the word is broken? — schtandard, Jun 02 '19 at 13:20
@schtandard Yes. The word is not really a "word" in this case. — L. F., Jun 02 '19 at 13:21

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 02 '19 at 13:30

5

The seqsplit package does it quite nicely:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{seqsplit} 

\begin{document}

\noindent \seqsplit{aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa}

\end{document}

answered Jun 02 '19 at 13:30

Bernard

271,350

Thank you! A dedicated package is the best option! – L. F. Jun 02 '19 at 13:37

coffeetable · Answer 2 · 2019-06-02T13:24:14.970

4

xurl package will break everywhere without inserting hyphen

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{xurl}
\DeclareUrlCommand\longword{\urlstyle{rm}}


\begin{document}

\longword{aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa}

\end{document}

edited Jun 02 '19 at 13:24

answered Jun 02 '19 at 13:19

coffeetable

258

Well, then the whole word is in monospace font. Is there a way to change that? – L. F. Jun 02 '19 at 13:22
@L.F. see edited – coffeetable Jun 02 '19 at 13:24
(+1) Good to know! I guess I will give a chance for other answers. – L. F. Jun 02 '19 at 13:28
With this approach, it's important to specify the option obeyspaces. – Mico Jun 02 '19 at 13:51

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 02 '19 at 13:34

4

\documentclass{article}

\def\zz#1{\zzz#1\relax}
\def\zzz#1{\ifx\relax #1\else #1\penalty0 \expandafter\zzz\fi}

\begin{document}

\zz{aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa}

\end{document}

answered Jun 02 '19 at 13:34

David Carlisle

757,742

if you need non-asciii letters you need to work a bit harder. – David Carlisle Jun 02 '19 at 13:35
It is always useful to see what actually happens under the hood! – L. F. Jun 02 '19 at 13:46

How to enable in-word breaking without a hyphen?

3 Answers3