Strange behavior of stringstream passed by reference - c++

For a project, I'd like to use stringstream to carry on data. To achieve this goal, I have to pass some stringstream as parameter to some function, but when I output the stringstreams, I see something like an address.
The code :
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
void doStuff(const std::iostream& msg)
{
std::cerr << msg << std::endl;
}
int main(void)
{
doStuff(std::stringstream("av"));
}
The output is :
0xbff4eb40
Can someone explains why I get an address when passing an rvalue ?
And why can't I pass a stringstream by value ?

You probably want to access the string on which the stringstream is storing its data:
void doStuff(const std::stringstream& msg)
{
std::cerr << msg.str() << std::endl;
}
What is happening in your code is that iostreams contain a void* operator which returns 0 if the stream contains any error or has reached EOF, and another value otherwise. This is usefull for error checking.
When you try to write you stream to std::cerr, the compiler realizes that the stream can be converted to a void* using that operator, and that a void* can be written to a ostream(the operator<< has been defined), and therefore uses it.
Note that i changed the method's signature so that it receives an std::stringstream as an argument, since std::iostream::str is not defined(this method is only available on string streams).

You get an address because it (like other streams) has a conversion to void * (which is primarily useful as a Boolean, to see whether reading/writing the stream has failed).
You can't pass it by value, because streams (again, in general, not just stringstreams) don't support copying and/or assigning.
To print the content of the stream, you could do something like:
void dostuff(std::iostream &msg) {
std::cerr << msg.rdbuf() << "\n";
}
Edit: Here's a complete demo program:
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
void show(std::ostream &os) {
std::cout << os.rdbuf() << "\n";
}
int main(){
std::stringstream test("whatever");
show(test);
return 0;
}
When I execute it, the output I get is the expected "whatever".

Related

Copying streams in C++

The following program prints 0.
#include <ostream>
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
std::string subjectString("subject");
std::ostream tempStream(NULL);
tempStream << subjectString;
std::ostream& updatedStream = tempStream;
std::stringstream ss;
ss << updatedStream;
std::cout << ss.str() << std::endl;
return 0;
}
Why?
EDIT
As per Niall's sugesstion, I tried:
#include <ostream>
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
std::string subjectString("subject");
std::stringbuf buffer;
std::ostream tempStream(&buffer);
buffer.sputn(subjectString.c_str(), subjectString.size());
std::stringstream ss;
ss << tempStream;
std::cout << ss.str() << std::endl;
return 0;
}
Even this prints an address. Not the actual string.
The construction of std::ostream requires a buffer (not NULL).
In addition, basic_stream objects are not copyable;
basic_ostream( const basic_ostream& rhs ) = delete;
Reference;
http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/io/basic_ostream/basic_ostream
Try something more like this;
// ...
std::stringbuf buffer;
std::ostream tempStream(&buffer);
// ...
To associate a buffer with the stream.
Following on some of the discussions and edits;
In general, I would not directly manipulate the buffer, you should rather use the stream instead tempStream.write(...). The exact details are beyond the immediate question/problem; being the initialisation of the first stream with the buffer and streaming content into that stream. If all you want to do with the code is check if the data is in the buffer, then you could use tempStream.rdbuf()->sgetn(...).
You have already mentioned that this is part of a larger problem.
In the context of some the comments here and the original problem; this could be a case in which direct manipulation of the buffer is needed (in much the same way as the stream would). Your implementation would need to be well tested since this is not "the usual" way of working with streams, but it can work; .rdbuf() is the manner in which you can get to the underlying buffer. I don't have an exact snippet (maybe that's another question), but you can "clear the buffer" by resetting the position(s) of the put and get areas to be the same (see the positioning, put and get area functions of the buffer - std::ostream::seekp was mentioned as being used to deal with this). I think you standard library implementation of stringstream could also offer some useful hints.
Because tempStream has no stream to hold anything.
ss.str() returns NULL (0).

How do I pass a string into a function?

I am attempting to use an overloaded function to get a string.
void get(char prompt[], int size,const std::string b = "")
{
std::cout << prompt << ": ";
std::cin.get(b, size);
std::cin.ignore(10, '\n');
}
Now I did just change the last argument from a character array to a string at the advice of another poster on this site, so I'm a little lost. I'm getting error message at the '.' in between cin and get. I've also tried cin.getline (I have no idea if there's a difference or what it is)
Error message : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'const std::string' to
'char *'
The error has a lot of other stuff, but I think that's the important bit.
I'm indirectly answering your question by suggesting an alternative method. Here's my implementation, along with an example of how to use it.
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <ostream>
std::string get(std::string const& prompt)
{
std::string ret;
std::cout << prompt << ": ";
getline(std::cin, ret);
return ret;
}
int main()
{
std::cout << get("Please enter your answer") << std::endl;
// or
std::string prompt("Enter your answer");
std::string response = get(prompt);
std::cout << response << std::endl;
}
When working with strings, you need to use the free function getline from the string header, not the member function getline from iostream. So it would be std::getline(std::cin, b);.
That being said getline won't accept a const string as its argument for the simple reason that the whole point of calling getline is to write to the string. Also note that unless you make b a (non-const) reference, any changes you perform on b inside your get method will not be visible outside of the method since strings are copied if you pass them by value.
The difference between istream::get(char*, streamsize) and istream::getline(char*, streamsize) is that the latter discards the newline character (as does the getline method for strings) while the former does not.
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/iostream/istream/get/
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/iostream/istream/ignore/
your call to get() doesn't match any of the existing istream methods. it just may end up being recursive if it ever works?
#include <string>
namespace std {
//I am attempting to use an overloaded function to get a string.
class Ciostream : public iostream {
public:
void get(char prompt[], int size,const std::string b = "")
{
cout << prompt << ": ";
cin.get(b, size);
cin.ignore(10, '\n');
}
};
}
//1.cpp:11:28: error: no matching function for call to 'std::basic_istream<char>::get(const string&, int&)'

Custom class ostringstream output error

I don't know why this is erroring, but I'm just trying to add something "akin" to endl so that I can throw what's in an ostringstream to our debugger. I have the following:
class debug_stream_info
{
public:
debug_stream_info(int errorLine, char *errorFile, int level)
:m_errorLine(errorLine), m_errorFile(errorFile), m_logLevel(level)
{
}
friend std::basic_ostringstream<char>& operator<<(std::basic_ostringstream<char>& os, debug_stream_info& debug_info);
private:
int m_errorLine;
std::string m_errorFile;
int m_logLevel;
};
std::basic_ostringstream<char>& operator<<(std::basic_ostringstream<char>& os, debug_stream_info& debug_info)
{
// Write the stream's contents to cpu_debug
// Deleted custom logging function. No errors here though
// Clear the stream for re-use.
os.str("");
os.seekp(0);
return os;
}
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
std::ostringstream myout;
myout << "hey there" << " and some more " << "Numbers!!: " << 435 << 54.2 << " that's good for numbers" << debug_stream_info(__LINE__, __FILE__, LOG_LEVEL);
return 0;
}
The error I'm getting is: error C2679: binary '<<' : no operator found which takes a right-hand operand of type 'debug_stream_info' (or there is no acceptable conversion) for the line in main. This is on VS2008.
I'm including sstream, iostream, etc, and have the namespaces set up right. I'm getting no other errors. I even tried replacing all occurrances of basic_ostream with just ostringstream and there was no difference (I'll be having a w_char version later, but I wanted the simple case to work first). I made the object on the line above and then passed a fully-constructed object on the line, and the error was exactly the same. I've changed the signature of the second argument to and from const with no change as well.
Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong here?
Edit: since EVERY response seems to want to put it there, I can NOT use std::ostream because I want this to work ONLY for std::ostringstream (and std::basic_ostringstream) and not for any type of output stream. Besides, the function wouldn't compile with ostream anyways, since I'm using the os.str() method, which isn't in ostream, only the sub-classes.
The real problem with your code is that you've overloaded std::ostringstream rather than std::ostream. So your code would work if you write this:
debug_stream_info info(/** blah blah**/);
std::ostringstream oss;
oss << info ; //OK
However this will not work:
oss << 1 << info; //ERROR
This is compilation error because the expression oss<<1 returns an object of type std::ostream& which doesn't have overload which takes debug_stream_info as second argument. That means if you use cast as:
static_cast<std::ostringstream&>(oss << 1) << info; //OK
then that should work again.
So the solution is to overload std::ostream, instead of std::basic_ostringstream.
Also, the second parameter should be const & . This is also a problem with your code.
So write this:
std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream&, debug_stream_info const &);
//^^^^^^^ note this
The second parameter should be const & so that you could write temporary objects to the stream.
debug_stream_info(__LINE__, __FILE__, LOG_LEVEL); is creating unnamed object which is not returning anything hence error
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdio>
#include <sstream>
using namespace std;
class debug_stream_info
{
public:
debug_stream_info(int errorLine, char *errorFile, int level)
:m_errorLine(errorLine), m_errorFile(errorFile), m_logLevel(level)
{
}
friend std::basic_ostringstream<char>& operator<<(std::basic_ostringstream<char>& os, debug_stream_info& debug_info);
std::ostringstream& fun(std::ostringstream& os)
{
os<<"Ashish"<<endl;
return os;
}
private:
int m_errorLine;
std::string m_errorFile;
int m_logLevel;
};
std::basic_ostringstream<char>& operator<<(std::basic_ostringstream<char>& os, debug_stream_info& debug_info)
{
// Write the stream's contents to cpu_debug
// Deleted custom logging function. No errors here though
// Clear the stream for re-use.
// os.str("");
// os.seekp(0);
return os;
}
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
std::ostringstream myout, test;
myout << "hey there" << " and some more " << "Numbers!!: " << 435 << 54.2 << " that's good for numbers"
<< debug_stream_info(1, "/home/ashish/test", 1).fun(test);
return 0;
}
Nawaz has explained very clearly why you're getting the error. The
usual solution in this case is to define your own stream type, unrelated
to std::istream. Something along the lines of:
class DebugStream
{
std::ostringstring* collector;
public:
template <typename T>
DebugStream& operator<<( T const& value )
{
if ( collector != NULL ) {
*collector << value;
}
return *this;
}
};
There are infinite variations on this; in your case, you could add a
non-template member function for your type; more likely, you'd add a
constructor which took the same arguments:
DebugStream( int lineNumber, std::string const& filename, int logLevel )
: collector( isActive( logLevel ) ? new std::ostringstream : NULL )
{
// Initial insertion of lineNumber, filename, timestamp...
}
You can also add a destructor which atomically flushes the collected
data to a file (or sends an email, or writes it to the system log, or
whatever). (Be very careful about this. You don't want an exception to
escape from the destructor, even if the logging fails.)
Finally, you might want to use a custom streambuf, rather than
stringstream. Say one that keeps the allocated buffer from one
instance to the next. And if you do this, rather than newing the
stream each time, you might pick up an instance from a table, indexed by
the log level (and initialized from a configuration file).

is it possible to pass iostream into a function?

What I mean:
Everyone knows this method of redirecting stream to output:
cout << "sometext"
but is it possible to pass that stream to a function like this:
my_function() << "sometext";
Yes*:
#include <iostream>
#include <ostream>
std::ostream & my_function() { return std::cout; }
// ...
my_function() << "Hello world.\n";
*) Nothing you said in words is entirely correct, and you may well struggle later integrate this into your project, but this answer shows how to make your code do what you want.
Everyone knows this method of redirecting stream to output:
That's not what that does. The stream is called cout; that's the iostream object. The << operator does not redirect anything. The std::ostream objects all have overloaded operator<< functions. Those functions are invoked when you use << with a stream on the left-hand side and some type that has an overload for it on the right.
<< "sometext" is not a "stream" that can be "redirected". It isn't even a valid expression in C++. The << operator is binary. it takes two parameters.
my_function() << "sometext"; can only work if it returns a std::ostream class or something derived from it. Or something that has an overloaded operator<< defined for it and const char*.
cout << "sometext"
This is not "redirecting stream to output" it is invoking the operator << function on the cout object with the string literal "sometext"
if my_function() is returning a ostream which has operator << overloaded then my_function() << "sometext" will compile else it will give an error.
If you are looking for a way to overload << for your own function unrelated to streams, here is how you can do it:
struct MyStruct {
void DoSomething(const string& s);
};
MyStruct &operator<<(MyStruct &x, const string& s) {
x.DoSomething(s);
return x;
}
MyStruct& my_function() {
return MyStruct;
}
int main() {
my_function() << "Hello, world!";
}
In this example, DoSomething will be called on the instance of MyStruct returned from my_function, and "Hello, world!" will be passed to it as an argument.
If I understand what you are asking about, the closest equivalent of a shell redirect for a function that uses std::cout for output is probably to switch temporarily std::cout's internal stream buffer for a different one.
Of course, this is inherently not thread safe and won't cope if the function itself expects std::cout and stdout to be the same underlying thing.
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
int main()
{
std::stringbuf redir( std::ios_base::out );
std::streambuf* save = std::cout.rdbuf( &redir );
my_function(); // cout output ends up in redir
std::cout.rdbuf( save ); // restore original cout
}

Overload handling of std::endl?

I want to define a class MyStream so that:
MyStream myStream;
myStream << 1 << 2 << 3 << std::endl << 5 << 6 << std::endl << 7 << 8 << std::endl;
gives output
[blah]123
[blah]56
[blah]78
Basically, I want a "[blah]" inserted at the front, then inserted after every non terminating std::endl?
The difficulty here is NOT the logic management, but detecting and overloading the handling of std::endl. Is there an elegant way to do this?
Thanks!
EDIT: I don't need advice on logic management. I need to know how to detect/overload printing of std::endl.
What you need to do is write your own stream buffer: When the stream buffer is flushed you output you prefix characters and the content of the stream.
The following works because std::endl causes the following.
Add '\n' to the stream.
Calls flush() on the stream
This calls pubsync() on the stream buffer.
This calls the virtual method sync()
Override this virtual method to do the work you want.
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
class MyStream: public std::ostream
{
// Write a stream buffer that prefixes each line with Plop
class MyStreamBuf: public std::stringbuf
{
std::ostream& output;
public:
MyStreamBuf(std::ostream& str)
:output(str)
{}
~MyStreamBuf() {
if (pbase() != pptr()) {
putOutput();
}
}
// When we sync the stream with the output.
// 1) Output Plop then the buffer
// 2) Reset the buffer
// 3) flush the actual output stream we are using.
virtual int sync() {
putOutput();
return 0;
}
void putOutput() {
// Called by destructor.
// destructor can not call virtual methods.
output << "[blah]" << str();
str("");
output.flush();
}
};
// My Stream just uses a version of my special buffer
MyStreamBuf buffer;
public:
MyStream(std::ostream& str)
:std::ostream(&buffer)
,buffer(str)
{
}
};
int main()
{
MyStream myStream(std::cout);
myStream << 1 << 2 << 3 << std::endl << 5 << 6 << std::endl << 7 << 8 << std::endl;
}
> ./a.out
[blah]123
[blah]56
[blah]78
>
Your overloaded operators of the MyStream class have to set a previous-printed-token-was-endl flag.
Then, if the next object is printed, the [blah] can be inserted in front of it.
std::endl is a function taking and returning a reference to std::ostream. To detect it was shifted into your stream, you have to overload the operator<< between your type and such a function:
MyStream& operator<<( std::ostream&(*f)(std::ostream&) )
{
std::cout << f;
if( f == std::endl )
{
_lastTokenWasEndl = true;
}
return *this;
}
Agreed with Neil on principle.
You want to change the behavior of the buffer, because that is the only way to extend iostreams. endl does this:
flush(__os.put(__os.widen('\n')));
widen returns a single character, so you can't put your string in there. put calls putc which is not a virtual function and only occasionally hooks to overflow. You can intercept at flush, which calls the buffer's sync. You would need to intercept and change all newline characters as they are overflowed or manually synced and convert them to your string.
Designing an override buffer class is troublesome because basic_streambuf expects direct access to its buffer memory. This prevents you from easily passing I/O requests to a preexisting basic_streambuf. You need to go out on a limb and suppose you know the stream buffer class, and derive from it. (cin and cout are not guaranteed to use basic_filebuf, far as I can tell.) Then, just add virtual overflow and sync. (See ยง27.5.2.4.5/3 and 27.5.2.4.2/7.) Performing the substitution may require additional space so be careful to allocate that ahead of time.
- OR -
Just declare a new endl in your own namespace, or better, a manipulator which isn't called endl at all!
I use function pointers. It sounds terrifying to people who aren't used to C, but it's a lot more efficient in most cases. Here's an example:
#include <iostream>
class Foo
{
public:
Foo& operator<<(const char* str) { std::cout << str; return *this; }
// If your compiler allows it, you can omit the "fun" from *fun below. It'll make it an anonymous parameter, though...
Foo& operator<<(std::ostream& (*fun)(std::ostream&)) { std::cout << std::endl; }
} foo;
int main(int argc,char **argv)
{
foo << "This is a test!" << std::endl;
return 0;
}
If you really want to you can check for the address of endl to confirm that you aren't getting some OTHER void/void function, but I don't think it's worth it in most cases. I hope that helps.
Instead of attempting to modify the behavior of std::endl, you should probably create a filtering streambuf to do the job. James Kanze has an example showing how to insert a timestamp at the beginning of each output line. It should require only minor modification to change that to whatever prefix you want on each line.
I had the same question, and I thought that Potatoswatter's second answer had merit: "Just declare a new endl in your own namespace, or better, a manipulator which isn't called endl at all!"
So I found out how to write a custom manipulator which is not hard at all:
#include <sstream>
#include <iostream>
class log_t : public std::ostringstream
{
public:
};
std::ostream& custom_endl(std::ostream& out)
{
log_t *log = dynamic_cast<log_t*>(&out);
if (log)
{
std::cout << "custom endl succeeded.\n";
}
out << std::endl;
return out;
}
std::ostream& custom_flush(std::ostream& out)
{
log_t *log = dynamic_cast<log_t*>(&out);
if (log)
{
std::cout << "custom flush succeeded.\n";
}
out << std::flush;
return out;
}
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
log_t log;
log << "custom endl test" << custom_endl;
log << "custom flush test" << custom_flush;
std::cout << "Contents of log:\n" << log.str() << std::endl;
}
Here's the output:
custom endl succeeded.
custom flush succeeded.
Contents of log:
custom endl test
custom flush test
Here I've created two custom manipulators, one that handles endl and one that handles flush. You can add whatever processing you want to these two functions, since you have a pointer to the log_t object.
You can't change std::endl - as it's name suggests it is a part of the C++ Standard Library and its behaviour is fixed. You need to change the behaviour of the stream itself, when it receives an end of line . Personally, I would not have thought this worth the effort, but if you want to venture into this area I strongly recommend reading the book Standard C++ IOStreams & Locales.