I was looking for solutions to appending strings with other primitives and found that stringstream was the easiest solution. However, I wanted to streamline the process so I wanted to make a function to ease its use. In case you are proposing alternate methods for concatenation, i need the final result to be char*. I used a loop (i) with:
std::stringstream ss;
ss << "test" << i;
char* name = new char[ss.str().size() + 1];//allocate
strcpy(name, ss.str().c_str());//copy and put (char*)c_str in name
So the output is something link test1test2test3... This was the most reasonable solution I could muster. I was trying to put it into a function for ease of use, but am running into problems. I wanted to do something like:
char* string_to_pointer( char* dest, std::stringstream* _ss ) {
char* result = new char[_ss->str().size() + 1];
strcpy(result, _ss->str().c_str());
return result;
}
I could then do something like:
std::stringstream ss;
ss << "test" << i;
char* name = string_to_pointer( name, &ss );
I'm pretty new to c++ and this seems like the correct use syntactically, but I am running into runtime issues and would welcome solutions on how to get this in an easy to use function without resulting to Boost.
What about something like this:
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
class ToString {
std::ostringstream stream;
public:
template<typename T>
inline ToString &operator<<(const T&val) {
stream << val;
return *this;
}
inline operator std::string() const {
return stream.str();
}
};
You can use it like this:
std::string str = ToString() << "Test " << 5 << " and " << 4.2;
Use the std::stringstream::str() function to retrieve the contents of the string.
Example:
int foo = 42;
double bar = 12.67;
std::stringstream ss;
ss << "foo bar - " << foo << ' ' << bar;
std::string result = ss.str();
If you dont want to modify the string further, you can now simple call result.c_str() to acquire a const char*. However, if you really need a modifyable char* you have to copy the contents of the string to a cstring:
std::unique_ptr<char[]> cstring = new char[result.size() + 1];
strcpy(cstring.get(), result.c_str());
char* string_to_cstring ( const std::string &_ss )
Would be cleaner! Use with string_to_cstring(ss.str())
Need the returned C-String to be changeble? Because if not, just use ss.str().c_str() wherever you need it!
Or use:
char* result = new char[ss.str().size() + 1] (); // value initialized
ss.str().copy(result,std::string::npos);
In Pascal Lazarus/Delphi, we have a function QuotedStr() that wraps any string within single quotes.
Here's an example of my current C++ code:
//I need to quote tblCustomers
pqxx::result r = txn.exec( "Select * from \"tblCustomers\" ");
Another one:
//I need to quote cCustomerName
std::cout << "Name: " << r[a]["\"cCustomerName\""];
Similar to the above, I have to frequently double-quote strings. Typing this in is kind of slowing me down. Is there a standard function I can use for this?
BTW, I develop using Ubuntu/Windows with Code::Blocks. The technique used must be compatible across both platforms. If there's no function, this means that I must write one.
C++14 added std::quoted which does exactly that, and more actually: it takes care of escaping quotes and backslashes in output streams, and of unescaping them in input streams. It is efficient, in that it does not create a new string, it's really a IO manipulator. (So you don't get a string, as you'd like.)
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <sstream>
int main()
{
std::string in = "\\Hello \"Wörld\"\\\n";
std::stringstream ss;
ss << std::quoted(in);
std::string out;
ss >> std::quoted(out);
std::cout << '{' << in << "}\n"
<< '{' << ss.str() << "}\n"
<< '{' << out << "}\n";
}
gives
{\Hello "Wörld"\
}
{"\\Hello \"Wörld\"\\
"}
{\Hello "Wörld"\
}
As described in its proposal, it was really designed for round-tripping of strings.
Using C++11 you can create user defined literals like this:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <cstddef>
// Define user defined literal "_quoted" operator.
std::string operator"" _quoted(const char* text, std::size_t len) {
return "\"" + std::string(text, len) + "\"";
}
int main() {
std::cout << "tblCustomers"_quoted << std::endl;
std::cout << "cCustomerName"_quoted << std::endl;
}
Output:
"tblCustomers"
"cCustomerName"
You can even define the operator with a shorter name if you want, e.g.:
std::string operator"" _q(const char* text, std::size_t len) { /* ... */ }
// ...
std::cout << "tblCustomers"_q << std::endl;
More info on user-defined literals
String str = "tblCustomers";
str = "'" + str + "'";
See more options here
No standard function, unless you count std::basic_string::operator+(), but writing it is trivial.
I'm somewhat confused by what's slowing you down - quoted( "cCustomerName" ) is more characters, no? :>
You could use your own placeholder character to stand for the quote, some ASCII symbol that will never be used, and replace it with " just before you output the strings.
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
struct quoted
{
const char * _text;
quoted( const char * text ) : _text(text) {}
operator std::string () const
{
std::string quotedStr = "\"";
quotedStr += _text;
quotedStr += "\"";
return quotedStr;
}
};
std::ostream & operator<< ( std::ostream & ostr, const quoted & q )
{
ostr << "\"" << q._text << "\"";
return ostr;
}
int main ( int argc, char * argv[] )
{
std::string strq = quoted( "tblCustomers" );
std::cout << strq << std::endl;
std::cout << quoted( "cCustomerName" ) << std::endl;
return 0;
}
With this you get what you want.
What about using some C function and backslash to escape the quotes?
Like sprintf_s:
#define BUF_SIZE 100
void execute_prog() {
//Strings that will be predicted by quotes
string param1 = "C:\\users\\foo\\input file.txt", string param2 = "output.txt";
//Char array with any buffer size
char command[BUF_SIZE];
//Concating my prog call in the C string.
//sprintf_s requires a buffer size for security reasons
sprintf_s(command, BUF_SIZE, "program.exe \"%s\" \"%s\"", param1.c_str(),
param2.c_str());
system(command);
}
Resulting string is:
program.exe "C:\users\foo\input file.txt" "output.txt"
Here is the documentation.
I am trying to write a macro to expand the contents of a struct:
struct Str
{
int a;
float f;
char *c;
};
Str s = {123, 456.789f, "AString"};
#define STRINGIFY_STR(x) ... // Macro to stringify x which is an instance of Str
printf("%s", STRINGIFY_STR(s));
desired output: [a: 123, f:456.789, c:AString]
Is it possible to write a macro that does this? If it is, then how?
Is there a reason you want to do this as a macro?
You should write a function to perform this action instead of using the preprocessor.
Depending on your goals, there are a few options. The boost formatting library provides a great toolkit to build the formatted string. You could always overload operator<< to provide clean output, as well.
If you're doing this in pure C, the sprintf family of methods work for creating formatted output.
This is quite gross, and only works on gcc/g++.
#define STRINGIFY_STR(x) \
std::string(({ std::ostringstream ss; \
ss << "[a: " << x.a \
<< ", f: " << x.f \
<< ", c: " << x.c << "]"; \
ss.str(); })).c_str()
You have to create the string from the values. Please don't do it this way. Please follow Reed's advice.
Here is how I would modify your struct to allow it to be pretty printed:
struct Str
{
int a;
float f;
char *c;
std::ostream & dump (std::ostream &os) const {
return os << "[a: " << a
<< ", f: " << f
<< ", c: " << c << "]";
}
};
std::ostream & operator << (std::ostream &os, const Str &s) {
return s.dump(os);
}
Str s = {123, 456.789f, "AString"};
Now, to print out s, you can use std::cout:
std::cout << s << std::endl;
Or, if you really want a string:
std::stringstream ss;
s.dump(ss);
puts(ss.str().c_str());
struct stringify
{
operator std::string() const
{
return str ;
}
std::string str ;
};
template < typename T > stringify operator+ ( stringify s, const T& object )
{
std::ostringstream stm ;
stm << object ;
if( !s.str.empty() && !std::isspace( *s.str.rbegin() ) ) s.str += ' ' ;
s.str += stm.str() ;
return s ;
}
I'm also against the approach, but to answer the question:
#define STRINGIFY_STR(x) \
(std::string("[a: ") + std::to_string((long double)x.a) \
+ std::string(", f:") + std::to_string((long double)x.f) \
+ std::string(",c: ") + x.c + std::string("]") ).c_str()
I suggest writing a member function that does this though.
C# has a syntax feature where you can concatenate many data types together on 1 line.
string s = new String();
s += "Hello world, " + myInt + niceToSeeYouString;
s += someChar1 + interestingDecimal + someChar2;
What would be the equivalent in C++? As far as I can see, you'd have to do it all on separate lines as it doesn't support multiple strings/variables with the + operator. This is OK, but doesn't look as neat.
string s;
s += "Hello world, " + "nice to see you, " + "or not.";
The above code produces an error.
#include <sstream>
#include <string>
std::stringstream ss;
ss << "Hello, world, " << myInt << niceToSeeYouString;
std::string s = ss.str();
Take a look at this Guru Of The Week article from Herb Sutter: The String Formatters of Manor Farm
In 5 years nobody has mentioned .append?
#include <string>
std::string s;
s.append("Hello world, ");
s.append("nice to see you, ");
s.append("or not.");
s += "Hello world, " + "nice to see you, " + "or not.";
Those character array literals are not C++ std::strings - you need to convert them:
s += string("Hello world, ") + string("nice to see you, ") + string("or not.");
To convert ints (or any other streamable type) you can use a boost lexical_cast or provide your own function:
template <typename T>
string Str( const T & t ) {
ostringstream os;
os << t;
return os.str();
}
You can now say things like:
string s = string("The meaning is ") + Str( 42 );
Your code can be written as1,
s = "Hello world," "nice to see you," "or not."
...but I doubt that's what you're looking for. In your case, you are probably looking for streams:
std::stringstream ss;
ss << "Hello world, " << 42 << "nice to see you.";
std::string s = ss.str();
1 "can be written as" : This only works for string literals. The concatenation is done by the compiler.
Using C++14 user defined literals and std::to_string the code becomes easier.
using namespace std::literals::string_literals;
std::string str;
str += "Hello World, "s + "nice to see you, "s + "or not"s;
str += "Hello World, "s + std::to_string(my_int) + other_string;
Note that concatenating string literals can be done at compile time. Just remove the +.
str += "Hello World, " "nice to see you, " "or not";
In C++20 you'll be able to do:
auto s = std::format("{}{}{}", "Hello world, ", myInt, niceToSeeYouString);
Until then you could do the same with the {fmt} library:
auto s = fmt::format("{}{}{}", "Hello world, ", myInt, niceToSeeYouString);
Disclaimer: I'm the author of {fmt}.
To offer a solution that is more one-line-ish: A function concat can be implemented to reduce the "classic" stringstream based solution to a single statement.
It is based on variadic templates and perfect forwarding.
Usage:
std::string s = concat(someObject, " Hello, ", 42, " I concatenate", anyStreamableType);
Implementation:
void addToStream(std::ostringstream&)
{
}
template<typename T, typename... Args>
void addToStream(std::ostringstream& a_stream, T&& a_value, Args&&... a_args)
{
a_stream << std::forward<T>(a_value);
addToStream(a_stream, std::forward<Args>(a_args)...);
}
template<typename... Args>
std::string concat(Args&&... a_args)
{
std::ostringstream s;
addToStream(s, std::forward<Args>(a_args)...);
return s.str();
}
boost::format
or std::stringstream
std::stringstream msg;
msg << "Hello world, " << myInt << niceToSeeYouString;
msg.str(); // returns std::string object
auto s = string("one").append("two").append("three")
The actual problem was that concatenating string literals with + fails in C++:
string s;
s += "Hello world, " + "nice to see you, " + "or not.";
The above code produces an error.
In C++ (also in C), you concatenate string literals by just placing them right next to each other:
string s0 = "Hello world, " "nice to see you, " "or not.";
string s1 = "Hello world, " /*same*/ "nice to see you, " /*result*/ "or not.";
string s2 =
"Hello world, " /*line breaks in source code as well as*/
"nice to see you, " /*comments don't matter*/
"or not.";
This makes sense, if you generate code in macros:
#define TRACE(arg) cout << #arg ":" << (arg) << endl;
...a simple macro that can be used like this
int a = 5;
TRACE(a)
a += 7;
TRACE(a)
TRACE(a+7)
TRACE(17*11)
(live demo ...)
or, if you insist in using the + for string literals (as already suggested by underscore_d):
string s = string("Hello world, ")+"nice to see you, "+"or not.";
Another solution combines a string and a const char* for each concatenation step
string s;
s += "Hello world, "
s += "nice to see you, "
s += "or not.";
You would have to define operator+() for every data type you would want to concenate to the string, yet since operator<< is defined for most types, you should use std::stringstream.
Damn, beat by 50 seconds...
If you write out the +=, it looks almost the same as C#
string s("Some initial data. "); int i = 5;
s = s + "Hello world, " + "nice to see you, " + to_string(i) + "\n";
As others said, the main problem with the OP code is that the operator + does not concatenate const char *; it works with std::string, though.
Here's another solution that uses C++11 lambdas and for_each and allows to provide a separator to separate the strings:
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator>
#include <sstream>
string join(const string& separator,
const vector<string>& strings)
{
if (strings.empty())
return "";
if (strings.size() == 1)
return strings[0];
stringstream ss;
ss << strings[0];
auto aggregate = [&ss, &separator](const string& s) { ss << separator << s; };
for_each(begin(strings) + 1, end(strings), aggregate);
return ss.str();
}
Usage:
std::vector<std::string> strings { "a", "b", "c" };
std::string joinedStrings = join(", ", strings);
It seems to scale well (linearly), at least after a quick test on my computer; here's a quick test I've written:
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <sstream>
#include <chrono>
using namespace std;
string join(const string& separator,
const vector<string>& strings)
{
if (strings.empty())
return "";
if (strings.size() == 1)
return strings[0];
stringstream ss;
ss << strings[0];
auto aggregate = [&ss, &separator](const string& s) { ss << separator << s; };
for_each(begin(strings) + 1, end(strings), aggregate);
return ss.str();
}
int main()
{
const int reps = 1000;
const string sep = ", ";
auto generator = [](){return "abcde";};
vector<string> strings10(10);
generate(begin(strings10), end(strings10), generator);
vector<string> strings100(100);
generate(begin(strings100), end(strings100), generator);
vector<string> strings1000(1000);
generate(begin(strings1000), end(strings1000), generator);
vector<string> strings10000(10000);
generate(begin(strings10000), end(strings10000), generator);
auto t1 = chrono::system_clock::now();
for(int i = 0; i<reps; ++i)
{
join(sep, strings10);
}
auto t2 = chrono::system_clock::now();
for(int i = 0; i<reps; ++i)
{
join(sep, strings100);
}
auto t3 = chrono::system_clock::now();
for(int i = 0; i<reps; ++i)
{
join(sep, strings1000);
}
auto t4 = chrono::system_clock::now();
for(int i = 0; i<reps; ++i)
{
join(sep, strings10000);
}
auto t5 = chrono::system_clock::now();
auto d1 = chrono::duration_cast<chrono::milliseconds>(t2 - t1);
auto d2 = chrono::duration_cast<chrono::milliseconds>(t3 - t2);
auto d3 = chrono::duration_cast<chrono::milliseconds>(t4 - t3);
auto d4 = chrono::duration_cast<chrono::milliseconds>(t5 - t4);
cout << "join(10) : " << d1.count() << endl;
cout << "join(100) : " << d2.count() << endl;
cout << "join(1000) : " << d3.count() << endl;
cout << "join(10000): " << d4.count() << endl;
}
Results (milliseconds):
join(10) : 2
join(100) : 10
join(1000) : 91
join(10000): 898
Here's the one-liner solution:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
int main() {
std::string s = std::string("Hi") + " there" + " friends";
std::cout << s << std::endl;
std::string r = std::string("Magic number: ") + std::to_string(13) + "!";
std::cout << r << std::endl;
return 0;
}
Although it's a tiny bit ugly, I think it's about as clean as you cat get in C++.
We are casting the first argument to a std::string and then using the (left to right) evaluation order of operator+ to ensure that its left operand is always a std::string. In this manner, we concatenate the std::string on the left with the const char * operand on the right and return another std::string, cascading the effect.
Note: there are a few options for the right operand, including const char *, std::string, and char.
It's up to you to decide whether the magic number is 13 or 6227020800.
Maybe you like my "Streamer" solution to really do it in one line:
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
using namespace std;
class Streamer // class for one line string generation
{
public:
Streamer& clear() // clear content
{
ss.str(""); // set to empty string
ss.clear(); // clear error flags
return *this;
}
template <typename T>
friend Streamer& operator<<(Streamer& streamer,T str); // add to streamer
string str() // get current string
{ return ss.str();}
private:
stringstream ss;
};
template <typename T>
Streamer& operator<<(Streamer& streamer,T str)
{ streamer.ss<<str;return streamer;}
Streamer streamer; // make this a global variable
class MyTestClass // just a test class
{
public:
MyTestClass() : data(0.12345){}
friend ostream& operator<<(ostream& os,const MyTestClass& myClass);
private:
double data;
};
ostream& operator<<(ostream& os,const MyTestClass& myClass) // print test class
{ return os<<myClass.data;}
int main()
{
int i=0;
string s1=(streamer.clear()<<"foo"<<"bar"<<"test").str(); // test strings
string s2=(streamer.clear()<<"i:"<<i++<<" "<<i++<<" "<<i++<<" "<<0.666).str(); // test numbers
string s3=(streamer.clear()<<"test class:"<<MyTestClass()).str(); // test with test class
cout<<"s1: '"<<s1<<"'"<<endl;
cout<<"s2: '"<<s2<<"'"<<endl;
cout<<"s3: '"<<s3<<"'"<<endl;
}
You may use this header for this regard: https://github.com/theypsilon/concat
using namespace concat;
assert(concat(1,2,3,4,5) == "12345");
Under the hood you will be using a std::ostringstream.
If you are willing to use c++11 you can utilize user-defined string literals and define two function templates that overload the plus operator for a std::string object and any other object. The only pitfall is not to overload the plus operators of std::string, otherwise the compiler doesn't know which operator to use. You can do this by using the template std::enable_if from type_traits. After that strings behave just like in Java or C#. See my example implementation for details.
Main code
#include <iostream>
#include "c_sharp_strings.hpp"
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int i = 0;
float f = 0.4;
double d = 1.3e-2;
string s;
s += "Hello world, "_ + "nice to see you. "_ + i
+ " "_ + 47 + " "_ + f + ',' + d;
cout << s << endl;
return 0;
}
File c_sharp_strings.hpp
Include this header file in all all places where you want to have these strings.
#ifndef C_SHARP_STRING_H_INCLUDED
#define C_SHARP_STRING_H_INCLUDED
#include <type_traits>
#include <string>
inline std::string operator "" _(const char a[], long unsigned int i)
{
return std::string(a);
}
template<typename T> inline
typename std::enable_if<!std::is_same<std::string, T>::value &&
!std::is_same<char, T>::value &&
!std::is_same<const char*, T>::value, std::string>::type
operator+ (std::string s, T i)
{
return s + std::to_string(i);
}
template<typename T> inline
typename std::enable_if<!std::is_same<std::string, T>::value &&
!std::is_same<char, T>::value &&
!std::is_same<const char*, T>::value, std::string>::type
operator+ (T i, std::string s)
{
return std::to_string(i) + s;
}
#endif // C_SHARP_STRING_H_INCLUDED
Something like this works for me
namespace detail {
void concat_impl(std::ostream&) { /* do nothing */ }
template<typename T, typename ...Args>
void concat_impl(std::ostream& os, const T& t, Args&&... args)
{
os << t;
concat_impl(os, std::forward<Args>(args)...);
}
} /* namespace detail */
template<typename ...Args>
std::string concat(Args&&... args)
{
std::ostringstream os;
detail::concat_impl(os, std::forward<Args>(args)...);
return os.str();
}
// ...
std::string s{"Hello World, "};
s = concat(s, myInt, niceToSeeYouString, myChar, myFoo);
Based on above solutions I made a class var_string for my project to make life easy. Examples:
var_string x("abc %d %s", 123, "def");
std::string y = (std::string)x;
const char *z = x.c_str();
The class itself:
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
class var_string
{
public:
var_string(const char *cmd, ...)
{
va_list args;
va_start(args, cmd);
vsnprintf(buffer, sizeof(buffer) - 1, cmd, args);
}
~var_string() {}
operator std::string()
{
return std::string(buffer);
}
operator char*()
{
return buffer;
}
const char *c_str()
{
return buffer;
}
int system()
{
return ::system(buffer);
}
private:
char buffer[4096];
};
Still wondering if there will be something better in C++ ?
In c11:
void printMessage(std::string&& message) {
std::cout << message << std::endl;
return message;
}
this allow you to create function call like this:
printMessage("message number : " + std::to_string(id));
will print : message number : 10
you can also "extend" the string class and choose the operator you prefer ( <<, &, |, etc ...)
Here is the code using operator<< to show there is no conflict with streams
note: if you uncomment s1.reserve(30), there is only 3 new() operator requests (1 for s1, 1 for s2, 1 for reserve ; you can't reserve at constructor time unfortunately); without reserve, s1 has to request more memory as it grows, so it depends on your compiler implementation grow factor (mine seems to be 1.5, 5 new() calls in this example)
namespace perso {
class string:public std::string {
public:
string(): std::string(){}
template<typename T>
string(const T v): std::string(v) {}
template<typename T>
string& operator<<(const T s){
*this+=s;
return *this;
}
};
}
using namespace std;
int main()
{
using string = perso::string;
string s1, s2="she";
//s1.reserve(30);
s1 << "no " << "sunshine when " << s2 << '\'' << 's' << " gone";
cout << "Aint't "<< s1 << " ..." << endl;
return 0;
}
Stringstream with a simple preproccessor macro using a lambda function seems nice:
#include <sstream>
#define make_string(args) []{std::stringstream ss; ss << args; return ss;}()
and then
auto str = make_string("hello" << " there" << 10 << '$');
This works for me:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
#define CONCAT2(a,b) string(a)+string(b)
#define CONCAT3(a,b,c) string(a)+string(b)+string(c)
#define CONCAT4(a,b,c,d) string(a)+string(b)+string(c)+string(d)
#define HOMEDIR "c:\\example"
int main()
{
const char* filename = "myfile";
string path = CONCAT4(HOMEDIR,"\\",filename,".txt");
cout << path;
return 0;
}
Output:
c:\example\myfile.txt
Have you tried to avoid the +=?
instead use var = var + ...
it worked for me.
#include <iostream.h> // for string
string myName = "";
int _age = 30;
myName = myName + "Vincent" + "Thorpe" + 30 + " " + 2019;