FText

Product documentation including reference and guides for Unreal Engine 4

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Conversion

FText can be converted to and from FString . However, because FText contains character strings linked to localization data, while FString only contains a character string, these methods are inherently lossy and will discard (or fail to create) localization data. An alternative method, Text Value Marshalling provides lossless conversion, although this method produces data more suitable for internal marshalling than human consumption.

The following conversion functions produce FText strings, but without localization data:


`FText` Function	Description
`AsCultureInvariant`	Creates a non-localized and culture invariant `FText` instance from an existing `FString` .
`FromString`	Creates a non-localized `FText` instance from an existing `FString` . This is identical to `AsCultureInvariant` in non-editor builds. In editor builds, this function does not flag the text as culture invariant, which means it could still become localizable if assigned to an `FText` property in a saved Asset.
`FromName`	Creates a non-localized `FText` instance from an existing `FName` . This is the same as calling `FromString` on the output of the `FName` parameter's `ToString` function.

To convert from FText to FString , use the ToString function. The resulting FString will hold the string data from the FText , but not the localization data.

Comparison

Because FText data is more complex than simple strings, it does not support overloaded-operator comparisons. Instead, it provides several functions to perform comparisons that recognize the nuanced data that it contains. The following comparison functions are available:


`FText` Function	Description
`EqualTo`	This function takes an `ETextComparisonLevel` value to determine what comparison rules to use. It returns a `bool` indicating whether or not the calling `FText` matches the other under those comparison rules.
`EqualToCaseIgnored`	This function is a wrapper for calling `EqualTo` with an `ETextComparisonLevel` value of `Second` . The return value comes directly from `EqualTo` .
`CompareTo`	This function takes an `ETextComparisonLevel` value to determine what comparison rules to use. It returns an `int32` like most string- or memory-comparison functions, where zero indicates equality, and negative or positive values indicate that the calling `FText` sorts lower or higher, respectively, relative to the `FText` parameter.
`CompareToCaseIgnored`	This function is a wrapper for calling `CompareTo` with an `ETextComparisonLevel` value of `Second` . The return value comes directly from `CompareTo` .

Using FText in User Interfaces

Slate/UMG

Slate and UMG use FText attributes or arguments for any built-in Widgets that show or manage user-facing text. We recommend using FText for any custom Widgets that you build.

HUD/Canvas

To display FText through the HUD system with Canvas, create a new FCanvasTextItem and set its Text variable to the text you want to display, as in the following example code:

// Create a new FCanvasTextItem instance to contain the text.
FCanvasTextItem TextItem(FVector2D::ZeroVector, TestHUDText, BigFont, FLinearColor::Black);
// Add the text into the FCanvasTextItem.
TextItem.Text = FText::Format(LOCTEXT("ExampleFText", "You currently have {0} health left."), CurrentHealth);
// Draw the text to the screen with FCanvas::DrawItem.
Canvas->DrawItem(TextItem, 10.0f, 10.0f);

When using Canvas in a HUD, you must call DrawItem within the DrawHUD function, or call it in a function chain that begins with DrawHUD .