Merge pull request #6264 from Textualize/content-blank

added content blank

Author: willmcgugan

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -5,6 +5,12 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](http://keepachangelog.com/)
 and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
+## Unreleased
+
+### Added
+
+- Added `Content.blank` https://github.com/Textualize/textual/pull/6264
+
 ## [6.7.1] - 2025-12-1
 
 ### Fixed

src/textual/content.py

@@ -179,6 +179,20 @@ def __init__(
     def __str__(self) -> str:
         return self._text
 
+    @property
+    def _is_regular(self) -> bool:
+        """Check if the line is regular (spans.start > span.end for all spans).
+
+        This is a debugging aid, and unlikely to be useful in your app.
+
+        Returns:
+            `True` if the content is regular, `False` if it is not (and broken).
+        """
+        for span in self.spans:
+            if span.end <= span.start:
+                return False
+        return True
+
     @cached_property
     def markup(self) -> str:
         """Get content markup to render this Text.
@@ -374,6 +388,26 @@ def styled(
         )
         return new_content
 
+    @classmethod
+    def blank(cls, width: int, style: Style | str | None = None) -> Content:
+        """Get a Content instance consisting of spaces.
+
+        Args:
+            width: Width of blank content (number of spaces).
+            style: Style of blank.
+
+        Returns:
+            Content instance.
+        """
+        if not width:
+            return EMPTY_CONTENT
+        blank = cls(
+            " " * width,
+            [Span(0, width, style)] if style else None,
+            cell_length=width,
+        )
+        return blank
+
     @classmethod
     def assemble(
         cls,
@@ -431,7 +465,10 @@ def assemble(
                 position += len(part.plain)
         if end:
             text_append(end)
-        return cls("".join(text), spans, strip_control_codes=strip_control_codes)
+        assembled_content = cls(
+            "".join(text), spans, strip_control_codes=strip_control_codes
+        )
+        return assembled_content
 
     def simplify(self) -> Content:
         """Simplify spans by joining contiguous spans together.
@@ -786,19 +823,22 @@ def get_text_at(offset: int) -> "Content":
                     if stop >= len(self.plain):
                         return self
                     text = self.plain[:stop]
-                    return Content(
+                    sliced_content = Content(
                         text,
                         self._trim_spans(text, self._spans),
                         strip_control_codes=False,
                     )
                 else:
                     text = self.plain[start:stop]
                     spans = [
-                        span._shift(-start) for span in self._spans if span.end > start
+                        span._shift(-start)
+                        for span in self._spans
+                        if span.end - start > 0
                     ]
-                    return Content(
+                    sliced_content = Content(
                         text, self._trim_spans(text, spans), strip_control_codes=False
                     )
+                return sliced_content
 
             else:
                 # This would be a bit of work to implement efficiently

tests/test_content.py

@@ -570,3 +570,20 @@ def test_fold(content: Content, width: int, expected: list[Content]) -> None:
     assert len(result) == len(expected)
     for line, expected_line in zip(result, expected):
         assert line.is_same(expected_line)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "width,style,text,spans,cell_length",
+    [
+        (5, None, "     ", [], 5),
+        (0, None, "", [], 0),
+        (5, "on red", "     ", [Span(0, 5, "on red")], 5),
+    ],
+)
+def test_blank_method(
+    width: int, style: str | None, text: str, spans: list[Span], cell_length: int
+) -> None:
+    blank = Content.blank(width, style)
+    assert blank.plain == text
+    assert blank.spans == spans
+    assert blank.cell_length == cell_length