String.Format Alternative in C++

String.Format alternative in C++

You can use sprintf in combination with std::string.c_str().

c_str() returns a const char* and works with sprintf:

string a = "test";
string b = "text.txt";
string c = "text1.txt";
char* x = new char[a.length() + b.length() + c.length() + 32];

sprintf(x, "%s %s > %s", a.c_str(), b.c_str(), c.c_str() );

string str = x;
delete[] x;

or you can use a pre-allocated char array if you know the size:

string a = "test";
string b = "text.txt";
string c = "text1.txt";
char x[256];

sprintf(x, "%s %s > %s", a.c_str(), b.c_str(), c.c_str() );

std::string formatting like sprintf

You can't do it directly, because you don't have write access to the underlying buffer (until C++11; see Dietrich Epp's comment). You'll have to do it first in a c-string, then copy it into a std::string:

  char buff[100];
  snprintf(buff, sizeof(buff), "%s", "Hello");
  std::string buffAsStdStr = buff;

But I'm not sure why you wouldn't just use a string stream? I'm assuming you have specific reasons to not just do this:

  std::ostringstream stringStream;
  stringStream << "Hello";
  std::string copyOfStr = stringStream.str();

Alternative to CString::Format?

CString offers the Format method for printf-style formatting, but this isn't type-safe.

For type-safe string formatting you could either use std::stringstream / std::wstringstream or the Boost Format library, although these both work with the C++ std::basic_string class template, and not the MFC CString class. I've used both of these successfully in VC6.

Boost Format is nice because it allows you to use printf-like syntax, and will throw an exception if the arguments you supply don't match the format string, whereas string formatting with C++ iostreams tends to make your code quite verbose.

Note that you can create a CString object from a std::string as follows:

std::string s;
CString str( s.c_str() );

I hope this helps!

String.Format for C++

Lots of good recommendations above that would work in most situations. In my case, I ultimately wanted to load strings from a resource, AND keep the string resources as close to .NET String.Format as I could, so I rolled my own. After looking at some of the implementations above for ideas, the resulting implementation was quite short and easy.

There is a class String, which in my case derives from Microsoft's CString, but it could derive from about any string class. There is also a class StringArg -- it's job is to take any parameter type and turn it into a string (ie it mimics ToString in .NET). If a new object needs to be ToString'd, you just add another constructor. The constructor allows a printf-style format specifier for non-default formatting.

The String class then accepts a string table ID for the source string, a number of StringArg parameters, and finally an optional HINSTANCE (I use lots of DLLs, any of which could host the string table, so this allowed me to pass it in, or use a DLL-specific HINSTANCE by default).

Usage examples:

dlg.m_prompt = String(1417); //"Welcome to Stackoverflow!"
MessageBox(String(1532, m_username)); //"Hi {0}"

As it is, it only takes a string ID for an input, but it would be trivial to add an input string instead of a string ID:

CString s = String.Format("Hi {0}, you are {1} years old in Hexidecimal", m_userName, StringArg(m_age, "%0X"));

Now for the StringArg class which does the equivalent of ToString on variables:

class StringArg
{
StringArg(); //not implemented
        StringArg(const StringArg&); //not implemented
        StringArg& operator=(const StringArg&); //not implemented

    public:
        StringArg(LPCWSTR val);
    StringArg(const CString& val);
    StringArg(int val, LPCWSTR formatSpec = NULL);
    StringArg(size_t val, LPCWSTR formatSpec = NULL);
    StringArg(WORD val, LPCWSTR formatSpec = NULL);
    StringArg(DWORD val, LPCWSTR formatSpec = NULL);
    StringArg(__int64 val, LPCWSTR formatSpec = NULL);
    StringArg(double val, LPCWSTR formatSpec = NULL);
    CString ToString() const;
private:
    CString m_strVal;
};

extern HINSTANCE GetModuleHInst(); //every DLL implements this for getting it's own HINSTANCE -- scenarios with a single resource DLL wouldn't need this

For the String class, there are a bunch of member functions and constructors that take up to 10 arguments. These ultimately call CentralFormat which does the real work.

class String : public CString
{
public:
    String() { }
    String(WORD stringTableID, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst()) { Format(stringTableID, hInst); }
    String(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst()) { Format(stringTableID, arg1, hInst); }
    String(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst()) { Format(stringTableID, arg1, arg2, hInst); }
    String(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst()) { Format(stringTableID, arg1, arg2, arg3, hInst); }
    String(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst()) { Format(stringTableID, arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4, hInst); }
    String(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst()) { Format(stringTableID, arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4, arg5, hInst); }
    String(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, const StringArg& arg6, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst()) { Format(stringTableID, arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4, arg5, arg6, hInst); }
    String(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, const StringArg& arg6, const StringArg& arg7, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst()) { Format(stringTableID, arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4, arg5, arg6, arg7, hInst); }
    String(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, const StringArg& arg6, const StringArg& arg7, const StringArg& arg8, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst()) { Format(stringTableID, arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4, arg5, arg6, arg7, arg8, hInst); }
    String(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, const StringArg& arg6, const StringArg& arg7, const StringArg& arg8, const StringArg& arg9, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst()) { Format(stringTableID, arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4, arg5, arg6, arg7, arg8, arg9, hInst); }

    CString& Format(WORD stringTableID, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst());
    CString& Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst());
    CString& Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst());
    CString& Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst());
    CString& Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst());
    CString& Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst());
    CString& Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, const StringArg& arg6, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst());
    CString& Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, const StringArg& arg6, const StringArg& arg7, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst());
    CString& Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, const StringArg& arg6, const StringArg& arg7, const StringArg& arg8, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst());
    CString& Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, const StringArg& arg6, const StringArg& arg7, const StringArg& arg8, const StringArg& arg9, HINSTANCE hInst = GetModuleHInst());
private:
    void CentralFormat(WORD stringTableID, std::vector<const StringArg*>& args, HINSTANCE hInst);
};

Finally, the implementation (hopefully it's OK to post this much on StackOverflow, although the bulk of it is very simple):

StringArg::StringArg(LPCWSTR val)
{
    m_strVal = val;
}

StringArg::StringArg(const CString& val)
{
    m_strVal = (LPCWSTR)val;
}

StringArg::StringArg(int val, LPCWSTR formatSpec)
{
    if(NULL == formatSpec)
        formatSpec = L"%d"; //GLOK
    m_strVal.Format(formatSpec, val);
}

StringArg::StringArg(size_t val, LPCWSTR formatSpec)
{
    if(NULL == formatSpec)
        formatSpec = L"%u"; //GLOK
    m_strVal.Format(formatSpec, val);
}

StringArg::StringArg(WORD val, LPCWSTR formatSpec)
{
    if(NULL == formatSpec)
        formatSpec = L"%u"; //GLOK
    m_strVal.Format(formatSpec, val);
}

StringArg::StringArg(DWORD val, LPCWSTR formatSpec)
{
    if(NULL == formatSpec)
        formatSpec = L"%u"; //GLOK
    m_strVal.Format(formatSpec, val);
}

StringArg::StringArg(__int64 val, LPCWSTR formatSpec)
{
    if(NULL == formatSpec)
        formatSpec = L"%I64d"; //GLOK
    m_strVal.Format(formatSpec, val);
}

StringArg::StringArg(double val, LPCWSTR formatSpec)
{
    if(NULL == formatSpec)
        formatSpec = L"%f"; //GLOK
    m_strVal.Format(formatSpec, val);
}

CString StringArg::ToString() const
{ 
    return m_strVal; 
}

void String::CentralFormat(WORD stringTableID, std::vector<const StringArg*>& args, HINSTANCE hInst)
{
    size_t argsCount = args.size();
    _ASSERT(argsCount < 10); //code below assumes a single character position indicator

    CString tmp;
    HINSTANCE hOld = AfxGetResourceHandle();
    AfxSetResourceHandle(hInst);
    BOOL b = tmp.LoadString(stringTableID);
    AfxSetResourceHandle(hOld);
    if(FALSE == b)
    {
#ifdef _DEBUG

        //missing string resource, or more likely a bad stringID was used -- tell someone!!
    CString s;
        s.Format(L"StringID %d could not be found!  %s", stringTableID, hInst == ghCommonHInst ? L"CommonHInst was passed in" : L"CommonHInst was NOT passed in"); //GLOK
        ::MessageBeep(MB_ICONHAND);
        ::MessageBeep(MB_ICONEXCLAMATION);
        ::MessageBeep(MB_ICONHAND);
        _ASSERT(0);
        ::MessageBox(NULL, s, L"DEBUG Error - Inform Development", MB_ICONSTOP | MB_OK | MB_SERVICE_NOTIFICATION); //GLOK
        }
#endif //_DEBUG

    CString::Format(L"(???+%d)", stringTableID); //GLOK
        return;
    }

    //check for the degenerate case
    if(0 == argsCount)
    {
        CString::operator=(tmp);
        return;
    }

    GetBuffer(tmp.GetLength() * 3); //pre-allocate space
    ReleaseBuffer(0);
    LPCWSTR pStr = tmp;
    while(L'\0' != *pStr)
    {
        bool bSkip = false;

        if(L'{' == *pStr)
        {
            //is this an incoming string position?
            //we only support 10 args, so the next char must be a number
            if(wcschr(L"0123456789", *(pStr + 1))) //GLOK
            {
                if(L'}' == *(pStr + 2)) //and closing brace?
                {
                    bSkip = true;

                    //this is a replacement
                    size_t index = *(pStr + 1) - L'0';
                    _ASSERT(index < argsCount);
                    _ASSERT(index >= 0);
                    if((index >= 0) && (index < argsCount))
                        CString::operator+=(args[index]->ToString());
                    else
                    {
//bad positional index

                        CString msg;
                        msg.Format(L"(??-%d)", index); //GLOK
                        CString::operator+=(msg);
                    }
                    pStr += 2; //get past the two extra characters that we skipped ahead and peeked at
                }
            }
        }

        if(false == bSkip)
            CString::operator+=(*pStr);
        pStr++;
    }
}

CString& String::Format(WORD stringTableID, HINSTANCE hInst)
{
    std::vector<const StringArg*> args;
    CentralFormat(stringTableID, args, hInst);
    return *this;
}

CString& String::Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, HINSTANCE hInst)
{
    std::vector<const StringArg*> args;
    args.push_back(&arg1);
    CentralFormat(stringTableID, args, hInst);
    return *this;
}

CString& String::Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, HINSTANCE hInst)
{
    std::vector<const StringArg*> args;
    args.push_back(&arg1);
    args.push_back(&arg2);
    CentralFormat(stringTableID, args, hInst);
    return *this;
}

CString& String::Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, HINSTANCE hInst)
{
    std::vector<const StringArg*> args;
    args.push_back(&arg1);
    args.push_back(&arg2);
    args.push_back(&arg3);
    CentralFormat(stringTableID, args, hInst);
    return *this;
}

CString& String::Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, HINSTANCE hInst)
{
    std::vector<const StringArg*> args;
    args.push_back(&arg1);
    args.push_back(&arg2);
    args.push_back(&arg3);
    args.push_back(&arg4);
    CentralFormat(stringTableID, args, hInst);
    return *this;
}

CString& String::Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, HINSTANCE hInst)
{
    std::vector<const StringArg*> args;
    args.push_back(&arg1);
    args.push_back(&arg2);
    args.push_back(&arg3);
    args.push_back(&arg4);
    args.push_back(&arg5);
    CentralFormat(stringTableID, args, hInst);
    return *this;
}

CString& String::Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, const StringArg& arg6, HINSTANCE hInst)
{
    std::vector<const StringArg*> args;
    args.push_back(&arg1);
    args.push_back(&arg2);
    args.push_back(&arg3);
    args.push_back(&arg4);
    args.push_back(&arg5);
    args.push_back(&arg6);
    CentralFormat(stringTableID, args, hInst);
    return *this;
}

CString& String::Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, const StringArg& arg6, const StringArg& arg7, HINSTANCE hInst)
{
    std::vector<const StringArg*> args;
    args.push_back(&arg1);
    args.push_back(&arg2);
    args.push_back(&arg3);
    args.push_back(&arg4);
    args.push_back(&arg5);
    args.push_back(&arg6);
    args.push_back(&arg7);
    CentralFormat(stringTableID, args, hInst);
    return *this;
}

CString& String::Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, const StringArg& arg6, const StringArg& arg7, const StringArg& arg8, HINSTANCE hInst)
{
    std::vector<const StringArg*> args;
    args.push_back(&arg1);
    args.push_back(&arg2);
    args.push_back(&arg3);
    args.push_back(&arg4);
    args.push_back(&arg5);
    args.push_back(&arg6);
    args.push_back(&arg7);
    args.push_back(&arg8);
    CentralFormat(stringTableID, args, hInst);
    return *this;
}

CString& String::Format(WORD stringTableID, const StringArg& arg1, const StringArg& arg2, const StringArg& arg3, const StringArg& arg4, const StringArg& arg5, const StringArg& arg6, const StringArg& arg7, const StringArg& arg8, const StringArg& arg9, HINSTANCE hInst)
{
    std::vector<const StringArg*> args;
    args.push_back(&arg1);
    args.push_back(&arg2);
    args.push_back(&arg3);
    args.push_back(&arg4);
    args.push_back(&arg5);
    args.push_back(&arg6);
    args.push_back(&arg7);
    args.push_back(&arg8);
    args.push_back(&arg9);
    CentralFormat(stringTableID, args, hInst);
    return *this;
}

C++ string formatting like Python {}.format

In C++20 you'll be able to use std::format which brings Python-like formatting to C++:

auto s = std::format("{:10}", "some_string");

Until then you can use the open-source {fmt} formatting library, std::format is based on.

Disclaimer: I'm the author of {fmt} and C++20 std::format.

%.#s format specifier in printf statement in c

It's undefined behavior. # in printf format specifier means alternative form, but according to the standard, # is only used together with o, a, A, x, X, e, E, f, F, g, G, not including s.

C11 §7.21.6.1 The fprintf function Section 6


# The result is converted to an ‘‘alternative form’’. For o conversion, it increases
the precision, if and only if necessary, to force the first digit of the result to be a
zero (if the value and precision are both 0, a single 0 is printed). For x (or X)
conversion, a nonzero result has 0x (or 0X) prefixed to it. For a, A, e, E, f, F, g, and G conversions, the result of converting a floating-point number always
contains a decimal-point character, even if no digits follow it. (Normally, a decimal-point character appears in the result of these conversions only if a digit follows it.) For g and G conversions, trailing zeros are not removed from the result. For other conversions, the behavior is undefined.

For example, on my machine, output is different: %.0#s HE

Is there an alternative to printf?

The GNU C++ compiler g++ checks printf arguments at compile-time. If you specify -Wall on the command line, it issues a warning if it detects a mismatch. So if you are using this compiler, you can use printf without worrying.

Your compiler may or may not offer a similar service. But hell, use printf anyway, at least in preference to the ridiculous cout mechanism. Or for a type-safe solution, you might consider using the Boost Format library.

Edited to add: This question has a discussion that you might find interesting.

C++11 Equivalent to Boost.Format

There is a proposal for something similar to boost-format. However, it's neither part of C++11 nor C++14, nor has anything related to string formatting be added.

Here you can find the latest proposal. In contrast to boost-format, it's based on variadic templates.

  • http://open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG21/docs/papers/2013/n3716.html

What is the use of the %n format specifier in C?

Nothing printed. The argument must be a pointer to a signed int, where the number of characters written so far is stored.

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
  int val;

  printf("blah %n blah\n", &val);

  printf("val = %d\n", val);

  return 0;

}

The previous code prints:

blah  blah
val = 5

Related Topics

Ef5 Code First - Changing a Column Type with Migrations

Directory.Getcurrentdirectory() Not Working on Linux

Dynamic Form Generation in Asp.Net

How to Share Data Between Different Threads in C# Using Aop

How to Code a Progress Bar for Windows 7 to Also Update Itself on the Taskbar

Can You Use C++ Dlls in C# Code in a Uwp

Develop Android App Using C#

Razor Syntax Error Serializing ASP.NET Model to JSON with HTML.Raw

How to Render Encoded Tags as Proper HTML, Rather Than Text

ASP.NET MVC 3: Defaultmodelbinder with Inheritance/Polymorphism

Regex:How to Get Words from a String (C#)

Compile to a Stand-Alone Executable (.Exe) in Visual Studio

How to Avoid Page Refresh After Button Click Event in Asp.Net

Capturing Webpage as Image in C#, Ensuring JavaScript Rendered Elements Are Visible

Memorystream - Cannot Access a Closed Stream

Dynamically Select Columns in Runtime Using Entity Framework

HTML Agility Pack Get All Elements by Class

Printing a Formatted HTML Page in C#


Leave a reply



Submit