Ndtyjky

Is it possible to reliably right-align the last word of a paragraph?

Using hfill works most of the time, looking like

Left stuff                             Right stuff.

but fails if the rest after hfill doesn't fit into the line. In that case the result looks like

Left stuff. Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla

bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla

Right stuff.

but I want to get

Left stuff. Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla

bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla

                                        Right stuff.

Actual example document

documentclass[12pt]{article}



begin{document}



noindenttextbf{In real document, I would use texttt{stringhfill} instead of texttt{stringhrulefill}. The latter just demonstrates it better in an example document.}



.



noindenttextbf{The command texttt{stringhfill} is useful for aligning short text to left and right easily.}



noindent Bla bla.

hrulefill Yada yada.



.



noindenttextbf{If the parts get too long, they are not correctly aligned.}



noindent Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla.

hrulefill Yada  Yada Yada  Yada Yada  Yada Yada  Yada Yada.



.



noindenttextbf{Boxes don't help.}



noindent hbox{Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla.}

hrulefill hbox{Yada  Yada Yada  Yada Yada  Yada Yada  Yada Yada.}



.



noindenttextbf{What I am actually trying to do.}



noindent Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla 

hrulefill (statement:1)



.



noindent Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla Bla Bla

hrulefill (statement:1)



.



noindenttextbf{An approximation of what it should look like, if the last line before ``(statement:1)'' is full.}



noindent Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla bla Bla Bla Bla

\.hrulefill (statement:1)





end{document}

There is a nice example in The TeXbook to do this. See chapter 14, page 106.

documentclass{article}

defsigned #1 (#2){{unskipnobreakhfilpenalty50

  hskip2emhbox{}nobreakhfilsl#1/ rm(#2)

  parfillskip=0pt finalhyphendemerits=0 par}}

begin{document}

hsize 9cm

This is a case where the name and address fit in nicely with the review.

signed A. Reviewer (Ann Arbor, Mich.)



But sometimes an extra line must be added. signed N. Bourbaki (Paris)

end{document}

You could make it a bit more standard for LaTeX:

documentclass{article}

newcommand{signed}[1]{%

  {unskipnobreakhfilpenalty50

   hskip2emhbox{}nobreakhfil#1

   parfillskip=0pt finalhyphendemerits=0 par}}

begin{document}

hsize 9cm

This is a case where the name and address fit in nicely with the review.

signed{emph{A. Reviewer} (Ann Arbor, Mich.)}



But sometimes an extra line must be added. signed{emph{N. Bourbaki} (Paris)}

end{document}

And the explanation of how it works from The TeXbook:

If a line break occurs at the penalty50, the hskip2em will disappear
and the empty hbox will occur at the beginning of a line, followed by
hfil glue. This yields two lines whose badness is zero; the first of
these lines is assessed a penalty of 50. But if no line break occurs
at the penalty50, there will be glue of 2 em plus 2 fil between the
review and the name; this yields one line of badness zero. TEX will
try both alternatives, to see which leads to the fewest total
demerits. The one-line solution will usually be preferred if it is
feasible.