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I have a `Text` that shows a value that changes while it is displayed - sometimes it’s is short, other times long, and the longest value that can be displayed is known.
The `Text` is part of a `Row` where another element has `weight(1f)`. I would like to have this `Text` measured with the longest value, so that the layout doesn’t change when the value changes. Is there a clean (no hacks like adding a transparent `Text` with the longest value) way to do this?

This article <https://medium.com/androiddevelopers/problem-solving-in-compose-text-d1dd1feafe4a|https://medium.com/androiddevelopers/problem-solving-in-compose-text-d1dd1feafe4a> has some approaches one could take.

And tbh I would in fact go with a Box where you lay out the text with the max letters and simply not place, only lay it out, (<https://github.com/HedvigInsurance/android/blob/develop/app%2Fcore%2Fcore-ui%2Fsrc%2Fmain%2Fkotlin%2Fcom%2Fhedvig%2Fandroid%2Fcore%2Fui%2Flayout%2FLayoutWithoutPlacement.kt#L27-L30|basically this>), even though I know you said you don't want that :sweat_smile:

That’s the solution I expect I will need; I was hoping to avoid it, though. Seems like a common functionality that should be available in the library.

Yeah maybe it should be. Because doing the alpha approach is something many people do but I think that doesn't play well with semantics staying around. I *think* that the "no placement" solution is better at that.

But do check out the other approaches, maybe one of those suits you just as well here?

They seem to have gone with the option of placing another `Text`, which I imagine can cause all sorts of problems. Some off the top of my head:
1. Screen readers will read both texts. Can be worked around by providing a custom semantics on the other text.
2. If you place this in a `SelectionContainer`, god knows what you will end up copying.

A custom layout that measures the desired text

I would expect screen readers and SelectionContainer to not read anything if you do `layout(width = width, height = height) {}` since nothing is placed at all, is that not the case?

If you don’t place it, sure. I was talking about option #1, placing two `Text`s, which the article says they ended up using.

Oh yeah, but I'd personally go with #1 + add the aforementioned `.withoutPlacement()` which imo is the best of both worlds.

I would use a TextMeasurer to calculate the max size

Seems like a useful feature to have in the library.

There’s some edge cases though, considering material vs non material, inline content, etc.

I was thinking something like
```Text(
    text: String,
    measuredText: String = text
    ...
)```

feel free to file a feature request. This feels like a pretty niche thing to give such a front-and-center API though.