# Length of text
**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/length-of-text/24597
**Category:** Uncategorized
**Created:** [July 2, 2003, 3:53pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/length-of-text/24597 "2003-07-02T15:53:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@pspecial](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/pspecial)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2003, 3:53pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/length-of-text/24597/1 "2003-07-02T15:53:56Z")
Does anyone know how to determine the length of whats in a dynamic text field once an external .txt is loaded?
What I’m trying to do is find the value so that if it exceeds a certain number of characters I can set a scroll bar to \_visible = true;
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/length-of-text/24597/2 "2003-07-02T16:11:15Z")
Well, TextField.length is the function, but why don’t you just use MX’s scrollBar components, and set them to auto? It’d be easier. Oh well, I guess you probably thought of that.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2003, 6:02pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/length-of-text/24597/3 "2003-07-02T18:02:56Z")
No I didnt think of that. I am using a scrollbar component but how do you set it to auto?
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/length-of-text/24597/4 "2003-07-02T18:24:19Z")
Ah, I see the problem. Drat. The bastards at macromedia only added an auto/true/false state to the “scrollPane” component, which really doesn’t work with dynamic text (or at least I haven’t yet been able to make it work). So I guess you’ll have to do it your way using the TextField.length function.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2003, 7:01pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/length-of-text/24597/5 "2003-07-02T19:01:59Z")
Well I figured it out. Here’s the solution:
\_root.bar.\_visible = false;
loadText = new loadVars();
loadText.load(“text1.txt”);
loadText.onLoad = function(success) {
if (success) {
newsBox.html = true;
newsBox.htmlText = this.myNews;
textLength = this.myNews.length
if (textLength \> 180) {
\_root.bar.\_visible = true;
}
}
}
The if statement condition may vary depending on your text box size. Here, I set the bar to be visible if there are more than 180 characters in the .txt file.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/length-of-text/24597/6 "2003-07-02T19:37:12Z")
:q:
Why not just use [AS]if (textFieldInstanceName.maxScroll \> 0){
bar.\_visible = true;
}[/AS]
[edit]lemme test this…lol[/edit]
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/length-of-text/24597/7 "2003-07-02T19:43:57Z")
Ok this works 🙂
[AS]if (tf.maxscroll\>1) {
bar.\_visible = true;
} else {
bar.\_visible = false;
}[/AS]
Where tf is the textfields instance name and bar is the instance name of the scrollbar.