Why does underlined text not get wrapped once it hits the end of a line ?

Question

Sometimes I want to underline some text, and it extends past the end of a line.  Why does underline{} not automatically wrap my text for me ?

Also, how can I underline text so that it will still wrap ?

lockstep · Accepted Answer

In text mode, the underline command will enclose its argument in a horizontal box, which doesn't allow linebreaks. Use the ul command of the soul package instead.

documentclass[12pt]{article}

usepackage{soul}

begin{document}

A sentence that is just included to fill the line. underline{Some text with underlining.}

A sentence that is just included to fill the line. ul{Some text with underlining.}

end{document}

EDIT: As for why underline works the way it does, see this entry in the UK TeX FAQ for starters. It would seem that Leslie Lamport (the author of LaTeX) implemented just a "quick fix", and that only later package authors came up with more satisfactory solutions for underlining. See sections 2 and 7 of the soul documentation to get an idea of how complicated things are.

Name · Answer

The ul command from the soul package has troubles with Umlauts -- the uline command from the ulem package doesn't and therefore seems to be the better option for those not exclusively writing in English.

Skillmon · Answer

If you're using the LuaTeX engine (or can use it) you could use the lua-ul package, that allows underlining without any restrictions on the input (unlike soul) and with fully functioning kerning, hyphenation, etc. (unlike ulem).
documentclass[]{article}

usepackage{lua-ul}

begin{document}
begin{minipage}{3cm} % to show automatic hyphenation works
  underLine
    {%
      This is some text that gets automatically hyphenated
      while being under%
    }lined.
end{minipage}
end{document}

As you can see, hyphenation even works correctly for words not completely inside the argument of underLine.

Why does underlined text not get wrapped once it hits the end of a line ?

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