Using streambuf when sending/getting struct - c++

Question

I'm working on boost::asio::streambuf and found out that I can send/get a struct using it, but when I send a struct I just can't get it as I have sent it. The documentation says that one should use commit() and consume(), but where should I use them here?
struct person
{
int m_id;
std::string m_message;
};
std::istream& operator>>(std::istream& in, struct person& p)
{
return in >> p.m_id >> p.m_message;
}
std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& out, struct person& p)
{
return out << p.m_id << " " << p.m_message;
}
int main()
{
boost::asio::streambuf buf;
std::ostream out(&buf);
person p;
p.m_id = 1;
p.m_message = "Hello World!";
out << p;
std::istream in(&buf);
person p1;
in >> p1;
cout << "ID: " << p1.m_id << endl;
cout << "Message: " << p1.m_message << endl;
return 0;
}
The problem is with strings so when I type only "hello" (without world), it works fine, but if I add "world!" as shown above it just doesn't see the added "world!", why?

Answer 1

There are a number of issues.
Firstly, make the arguments const& when possible:
std::ostream &operator<<(std::ostream &out, person const &p) {
Secondly, make sure the streams flush to the buffer. I think it's good practice to limit the lifetime of the ostream or istream instances
Thirdly, choose a format that will be robust. Your sample already had bigger problems, when you had m_id = 1 and m_message = "123" (can you see it?).
In text formats you need either fixed-length fields or a delimiting protocol. Let's fix it:
std::ostream &operator<<(std::ostream &out, person const &p) {
return out << p.m_id << ";" << p.m_message.length() << ";" << p.m_message;
}
Now when reading it back you will see how much more precise you need to be:
std::istream &operator>>(std::istream &in, person &p) {
char separator;
size_t length;
bool ok = in >> p.m_id
&& in >> separator && separator == ';'
&& in >> length
&& in >> separator && separator == ';'
;
if (ok) {
p.m_message.resize(length);
in.read(&p.m_message[0], length);
p.m_message.resize(in.gcount());
}
// ensure the expected number of bytes were read
ok = ok && (p.m_message.length() == length);
if (!ok)
in.setstate(std::ios::failbit);
return in;
}
Yikes. Really? Yes really. At a minimum!
Do error handling
Full Demo
Live On Coliru
#include <boost/asio.hpp>
#include <iostream>
struct person {
int m_id;
std::string m_message;
};
std::ostream &operator<<(std::ostream &out, person const &p) {
return out << p.m_id << ";" << p.m_message.length() << ";" << p.m_message;
}
std::istream &operator>>(std::istream &in, person &p) {
char separator;
size_t length;
bool ok = in >> p.m_id
&& in >> separator && separator == ';'
&& in >> length
&& in >> separator && separator == ';'
;
if (ok) {
p.m_message.resize(length);
in.read(&p.m_message[0], length);
p.m_message.resize(in.gcount());
}
// ensure the expected number of bytes were read
ok = ok && (p.m_message.length() == length);
if (!ok)
in.setstate(std::ios::failbit);
return in;
}
int main() {
boost::asio::streambuf buf;
std::ostream(&buf) << person{ 1, "Hello World!" };
person received;
if (std::istream(&buf) >> received) {
std::cout << "ID: " << received.m_id << std::endl;
std::cout << "Message: " << received.m_message << std::endl;
} else {
std::cout << "Couldn't receive person\n";
}
}
Prints
ID: 1
Message: Hello World!
BONUS
C++14 added std::quoted:
#include <iomanip>
std::ostream &operator<<(std::ostream &out, person const &p) { return out << p.m_id << std::quoted(p.m_message); }
std::istream &operator>>(std::istream &in, person &p) { return in >> p.m_id >> std::quoted(p.m_message); }
Which, in this case, also does the job: Live On Coliru

Answer 2

From http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/string/basic_string/operator_ltltgtgt (emphasis and ellipsis mine):
2) ... reads characters from is and appends them to str ... until one
of the following conditions becomes true:
...
...
std::isspace(c,is.getloc()) is true for the next character c in is (this whitespace character remains in the input stream). ...
Basicaly what this means is that if you extract a string from an istream using operator >> it stops at white spaces.
If you want to get everything from the stream into your string there are plenty of questions asking that (Like this one or this one).