Pixel length of text in applet output useing drawString()

Question

is thier a way to find the pixel length of a string of text when im going to output it useing drawString in a applet
to say i am going to "draw hello world" in a applet
i wish to use drawRect around it i know were it starts i want to know the length of the letters in pixel size
each one seems to differ so each letter has a unknown length i need to know the lenght of the combined letters of the string of text
or even each individual letter and i can write a algorithim to add um
this is a problem ive encoutered before never solved and now am encountering again.

Answer 1

The TextLayout class is also handy in this area.
/*  <applet code="TextSizeTest" width="400" height="300"></applet>
*  use: >appletviewer TextSizeTest.java
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.font.*;
import java.awt.geom.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TextSizeTest extends JApplet
    public void init()
        getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        getContentPane().add(new TextSizePanel());
    public static void main(String[] args)
        JApplet applet = new TextSizeTest();
        JFrame f = new JFrame(applet.getClass().getName());
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.getContentPane().add(applet);
        f.setSize(400,300);
        f.setLocation(200,200);
        applet.init();
        applet.start();
        f.setVisible(true);
class TextSizePanel extends JPanel
    String text;
    Font font;
    public TextSizePanel()
        text = "A test string";
        font = new Font("lucida sans regular", Font.PLAIN, 24);
        setBackground(Color.white);
    protected void paintComponent(Graphics g)
        super.paintComponent(g);
        Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D)g;
        g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
                            RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
        int w = getWidth();
        int h = getHeight();
        g2.setFont(font);
        FontRenderContext frc = g2.getFontRenderContext();
        LineMetrics metrics = font.getLineMetrics(text, frc);
        float width = (float)font.getStringBounds(text, frc).getWidth();
        float ascent = metrics.getAscent();
        float descent = metrics.getDescent();
        float x = (w - width)/2;
        float y = (h + ascent)/2 - descent;
        g2.drawString(text, x, y);
        g2.setPaint(Color.red);
        g2.draw(new Rectangle2D.Double(x, y - ascent, width, ascent + descent));
}