Bump right-aligned text to next line if no room

Question

I'm trying to write a simple command that will put some text right-aligned, but bump it to the next line if it doesn't fit well. Since an image is worth a thousand words:

The "Normally" case is correct - that's what it should do. But if the line gets too long, I'd like it to bump to the next line, as shown in "Desired". Currently, what I have does "Failure". Here's what I've come up with so far:

\newcommand{\when}[1]{\hfill\mbox{\textit{#1}}}

Note: I had to manually push the "Desired" to the right with a \\ \strut, but I'd like the macro to automate this, and to not have to pick out the cases where I need to do that by hand. (Simply adding \\ \strut to the macro results in the wrong output for the "Normally" case.)

Answer 1

There are some cases where both Herbert's and Thorsten Donig's answers can be problematic. One situation is when the stuff at the end needs a new line, but that line also starts a new page. This makes an especially awkward widow, since it would start a page flushed right. The other potential problem involves hyphenation. Herbert's solution does not work properly on lines that are started by hyphenated words (it starts a new line even if there is enough space to flush right), and Thorsten Donig's solution seems to break hyphenation of the preceding word.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[papersize={10cm,5cm},textwidth=5cm,vmargin=5mm]{geometry}
\usepackage{calc,parskip}
\newcommand{\atend}{\makebox[2em][l]{\leaders\hbox{b}\hfill}}
\newcommand{\fillpage}{\vspace*{\textheight}\vspace*{-2\baselineskip}\vspace{-\parskip}}
\overfullrule=2pt
\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}
\fillpage

\newcommand\comfyfill[1]{{% = Herbert's \When
  \leftskip=0ptplus1fil\rightskip=-\leftskip\parfillskip=\leftskip
  \hfill \phantom{ } \textit{\mbox{#1}}\par}}

\makebox[\textwidth-2em]{\hrulefill a}\comfyfill{\atend}

\makebox[\textwidth-\widthof{charac- }]{\hrulefill} characterisation \comfyfill{\atend}

\makebox[\textwidth-\widthof{charac- }]{\hrulefill} charac- terisation \comfyfill{\atend}

\newpage
\fillpage

\renewcommand*{\comfyfill}[1]{% = Thorsten Donig's \signed
  \unskip\hspace*{1em plus 1fill}
  \nolinebreak[3]%
  \hspace*{\fill}\mbox{\emph{#1}}
  \parfillskip0pt\par
}

\makebox[\textwidth-2em]{\hrulefill a}\comfyfill{\atend}

\makebox[\textwidth-\widthof{charac- }]{\hrulefill} characterisation \comfyfill{\atend}

\makebox[\textwidth-\widthof{charac- }]{\hrulefill} charac- terisation \comfyfill{\atend}

\end{document}

Here is the output from Herbert's solution:

An here is the output from Thorsten Donig's:

Answer 2

\documentclass[a5paper]{article}

\newcommand\When[1]{{%
  \leftskip=0ptplus1fil\rightskip=-\leftskip\parfillskip=\leftskip
  \hfill \phantom{ } \textit{\mbox{#1}}\par}}

\parindent=0pt

\begin{document}
\hrulefill

long long long long long long blub bla bla \When{2002--2010}
long long long long long long blub bla bla blaaah \When{2002--2010}
long long long long long long blub bla bla bla bla blaaaah \When{2002--2010}

long long long long long long blub bla bla bla bla blaaaah 
long long long long long long blub bla bla bla bla blaaaah 

\end{document}

Answer 3

A possible solution could look like this. (I had no other idea for the macro name so I have chosen this one).

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,english]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{babel}

\newcommand*{\signed}[1]{%
  \unskip\hspace*{1em plus 1fill}
  \nolinebreak[3]%
  \hspace*{\fill}\mbox{\emph{#1}}
  \parfillskip0pt\par
}

\begin{document}
  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. \signed{2001--2002}

  With the new command the signature text should be shifted to the new line. \signed{2001--2002}
\end{document}

---

Answer 4

Your original code almost does it. You only need to add an empty \hbox{} (or shorter \null) at the left to make it work on a line on its own. The \hfill macro doesn't work directly at the beginning of the line.

This works fine with the some example text similar to the one you provided:

\documentclass{article}
\newcommand{\when}[1]{\hbox{}\hfill\mbox{\textit{#1}}}
\begin{document}
\subsubsection*{Headline}
text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text \when{2001-2002}
\subsubsection*{Headline}
text text text text text text text text text text text text text \when{2001-2002}
\end{document}