Unity UI How to determine string location inside a Text

Hi everyone!
I'm trying to develop a quiz game with the classic fill th gaps method.

I've a database with some questions with the gaps represented as a "_____" pattern, and I want to create a input field on top of it.

The problem is that since the position of the pattern is not fixed, I have lo locate it.

Since the line height is fixed, was easy to locate the y coordinate, but not the x one (of the first '_' char). I tried several ways, but with no success.

- I tried to get chars width to generate a left offset with:
textObj.cachedTextGenerator.characters [charPosition].charWidth

- I tried to locate the char with
textObj.cachedTextGenerator.characters [charPosition].cursorPos.x

- I tried to get a monospace font, but it messed all

Has anyone done something similar?
Thank you very much!!

EXAMPLE:
2 + _ = 5
Here I want to locate the x position of the '_' char to create an input field on top.

 

why not make the placeholder of inputfield display '_' and the check the input text ?

 

Because the questions are loadedd in a database, so I receive only a string.

I put this string in a unique Text object because the InputField would not always be in the same position

 

Just an idea

1. I would split the string to single character and put them in an array with this:
char[] singleCharacters = "2+3=5".ToCharArray();

2. Then I would hide randomly a character with this:
Random random = new Random();
int randomNumber = random.Next(0, singleCharacters.length);
"randomNumber is the place of the character in the array"

3.Then i would create an array of inputFields an assign the characters and set
inputFields[randomNumber ].placeholder.GetComponent<Text>.text="_"
inputFields[randomNumber ].interactable=true;

 

Perhaps just break the text into 2 components? I think it's possible to do what you want (get the location), but I'm not sure how With 2 text components, just insert the inputfield inbetween them.

 

Thanks everyone, finally I got what I want.

I post my code for future people with the same problem. The solutions isn't elegant at all, but it works. It detects a gap and sets the position and size of a panel to fill the gap.

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2.         float charInsideLine;
3.         int charPosStart = textComp.text.IndexOf ('_');
4.         int charPosEnd = charPosStart;
5.         for (; textComp.text [charPosEnd] == '_'; charPosEnd++);
6.  
7.         for (int i = 0; i < textComp.cachedTextGenerator.lines.Count; i++) {
8.             if (charPosStart > textComp.cachedTextGenerator.lines[i].startCharIdx) {
9.                 line = i;
10.                 charInsideLine = charPosStart - textComp.cachedTextGenerator.lines [i].startCharIdx;
11.             }
12.         }
13.  
14.         // Based on https://answers.unity.com/questions/784199/how-to-get-the-current-best-fit-size-of-a-text-com.html
15.         string auxstr = textComp.text;
16.         textComp.cachedTextGenerator.Invalidate();
17.         Vector2 size = (textComp.transform as RectTransform).rect.size;
18.         TextGenerationSettings tempSettings = textComp.GetGenerationSettings(size);
19.         tempSettings.scaleFactor = 1;//dont know why but if I dont set it to 1 it returns a font that is to small.
20.         if(!textComp.cachedTextGenerator.Populate(auxstr, tempSettings))
21.             Debug.LogError("Failed to generate fit size");
22.         Debug.Log("1: "+textComp.cachedTextGenerator.fontSizeUsedForBestFit);textComp.text = "";
23.         textComp.text = auxstr;
24.         // End based on https://answers.unity.com/questions/784199/how-to-get-the-current-best-fit-size-of-a-text-com.html
25.  
26.         auxText.font = textComp.font;
27.         auxText.fontSize = textComp.cachedTextGenerator.fontSizeUsedForBestFit;
28.         auxText.fontStyle = textComp.fontStyle;
29.         auxText.resizeTextForBestFit = false;
30.         Debug.Log (textComp.rectTransform.sizeDelta.y);
31.         auxText.text = textComp.text.Substring (textComp.cachedTextGenerator.lines [line].startCharIdx, charPosStart-textComp.cachedTextGenerator.lines [line].startCharIdx);
32.         yield return new WaitForEndOfFrame ();
33.         xoffset = auxText.rectTransform.sizeDelta.x;
34.  
35.         auxText.text = textComp.text.Substring (charPosStart, charPosEnd-charPosStart);
36.         yield return new WaitForEndOfFrame ();
37.         linesize = auxText.rectTransform.sizeDelta.x;
38.  
39.         float lineheight = ysize/lcount;
40.         float ypos = textComp.rectTransform.anchoredPosition.y+lineheight*lcount/2-lineheight/2-lineheight*line;
41.  
42.         panel.rectTransform.anchoredPosition = new Vector2(textComp.rectTransform.anchoredPosition.x-xsize/2+xoffset+linesize/2,ypos);
43.         panel.rectTransform.sizeDelta = new Vector2 (linesize,lineheight);
44.  

 

can you provide me some more snippet of code? Because i need same requirement.

 

Would you please at least make sure you posted everything..