`\uline` from `ulem` package won't break lines automatically when containing boolean expression

Question

Here is the MWE:

\documentclass{minimal}

% \usepackage{lipsum}


% \let\uline\underline
\usepackage{ulem}
\newif\ifanswer

\newcommand{\showanswer}[0]{\answertrue}
\newcommand{\hideanswer}[0]{\answerfalse}

\newcommand{\answer}[1]{
    \ifanswer{#1}\else\hphantom{#1}\fi
}

\newcommand{\fillin}[1]{%
    \uline{\hspace{0.5em}\answer{#1}\hspace{0.5em}}}


\begin{document}

Test0:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, \uline{vestibulum ut, placerat ac,adipiscing vitae, felis}. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuerid, vulputate a, magna.


\showanswer




Test1-1:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, \fillin{vestibulum ut, placerat ac,adipiscing vitae, felis}. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuerid, vulputate a, magna.


Test1-2:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, \uline{\hspace{0.5em}\ifanswer{vestibulum ut, placerat ac,adipiscing vitae, felis}\fi\hspace{0.5em}}. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuerid, vulputate a, magna.


Test1-3:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, \hspace{0.5em}\ifanswer\uline{vestibulum ut, placerat ac,adipiscing vitae, felis}\fi\hspace{0.5em}. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuerid, vulputate a, magna.


Test1-4:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, \hspace{0.5em}\ifanswer\uline{vestibulum ut, placerat ac,adipiscing vitae, felis}\else\uline{\hphantom{vestibulum ut, placerat ac,adipiscing vitae, felis}}\fi\hspace{0.5em}. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuerid, vulputate a, magna.




\hideanswer


Test2-1:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, \fillin{vestibulum ut, placerat ac,adipiscing vitae, felis}. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuerid, vulputate a, magna.


Test2-2:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, \uline{\hspace{0.5em}\ifanswer{vestibulum ut, placerat ac,adipiscing vitae, felis}\fi\hspace{0.5em}}. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuerid, vulputate a, magna.


Test2-3:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, \hspace{0.5em}\ifanswer\uline{vestibulum ut, placerat ac,adipiscing vitae, felis}\fi\hspace{0.5em}. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuerid, vulputate a, magna.


Test2-4:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, \hspace{0.5em}\ifanswer\uline{vestibulum ut, placerat ac,adipiscing vitae, felis}\else\uline{\hphantom{vestibulum ut, placerat ac,adipiscing vitae, felis}}\fi\hspace{0.5em}. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuerid, vulputate a, magna.


\end{document}

Edit 1:

After some searching, the question Phantom and line break may explain the reason but without a satisfactory solution.

This behavior does not seem surprising and, at least in the case of Test1-3, you have found the better way to accomplish it. — Steven B. Segletes, Sep 26 '19 at 10:24

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 26 '19 at 12:38

You can't use \hphantom directly, because it builds an unbreakable box. In the code below I split the argument at spaces and build phantoms of each item.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xparse}
\usepackage{ulem}

\ExplSyntaxOn
\NewDocumentCommand{\fillin}{m}
 {
  \bool_if:NTF \g_bill_answer_bool { #1 } { \bill_answer_hide:n { #1 } }
 }
\NewDocumentCommand{\showanswer}{}{\bool_gset_true:N \g_bill_answer_bool}
\NewDocumentCommand{\hideanswer}{}{\bool_gset_false:N \g_bill_answer_bool}

\bool_new:N \g_bill_answer_bool
\seq_new:N \l__bill_answer_in_seq
\seq_new:N \l__bill_answer_out_seq

\cs_new_protected:Nn \bill_answer_hide:n
 {
  \seq_set_split:Nnn \l__bill_answer_in_seq { ~ } { #1 }
  \seq_set_map:NNn \l__bill_answer_out_seq \l__bill_answer_in_seq
   { \exp_not:n { \hphantom { ##1 } } }
  \exp_args:Nx \uline {\seq_use:Nn \l__bill_answer_out_seq { ~ } }
 }
\ExplSyntaxOff

\begin{document}

Test0

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, 
\uline{vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis, vestibulum ut, 
placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis, vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing 
vitae, felis}. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy 
eget, consectetuerid, vulputate a, magna.

\showanswer

Test1 (show)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, 
\fillin{vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis, vestibulum ut, 
placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis, vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing 
vitae, felis}. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy 
eget, consectetuerid, vulputate a, magna.

\hideanswer

Test2 (hide)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, 
\fillin{vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis, vestibulum ut, 
placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis, vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing 
vitae, felis}. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy 
eget, consectetuerid, vulputate a, magna.

\end{document}

It's better, though, that you use \raggedright typesetting, in order to avoid hyphenation.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 16 '20 at 10:51

This is only a tiny tweak to ulem.

\usepackage[normalem]{ulem}

\makeatletter
% Altered \UL@putbox:
\def\UL@putbox{\ifx\UL@start\@empty \else % not inner
   \vrule\@width\z@ \LA@penalty\@M
    {\UL@skip\wd\UL@box \UL@leaders \kern-\UL@skip}%
    \ifanswer \box\UL@box     % The original
    \else \hbox to\wd\UL@box{}% Special for invisible 
    \fi                       %
  \fi}

`\uline` from `ulem` package won't break lines automatically when containing boolean expression

2 Answers2

Linked