20100307

std::string and sprintf

Amongst the many projects I am currently juggling, one of them involves developing some C++ code for an embedded Linux project. I've just hit an instance where I'd like to be able to use “printf” style formatting using std::string instances, but it can be pretty clumsy – I need to allocate buffer space for sprintf, invoke the function, and package up the result into another string.

I did a quick search on the Internet and found many others looking for the same thing: “Is there a way I can use sprintf in c++ using std:strings?” And invariably the answers were either


  • “No”

  • “Use std::ostringstream and c++'s built-in manipulators”

  • “Use boost::format

And they are all right!

It turns out that you can't safely use the *printf style variable argument lists with C++, as only POD (Plain Old Data) types can be passed in the list. Attempting to pass most other types will result in a segmentation fault at run time. The official C++ way is to use ostringstream and the usual stream manipulators to format parameters, but for me, that make's writing tests more difficult because I need to “build” the expected streams exactly the same way in my test code. The final method could work for me, except that this is an embedded project and I am trying to keep the number of libraries referenced to a minimum, since I need to build and include them on my target Linux system.

So my solution was to accept the limitations of the printf function and write a wrapper function that hides the buffer setup and string creation:

#include <string>
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <stdio.h>

string FormatString(const string& format, ...) {
char buffer[1024];

va_list arglist;
va_start(arglist, format);
int length = vsnprintf(buffer, sizeof(buffer), format.c_str(), arglist);
va_end(arglist);

return string(buffer, length);
}



I've tucked this away in a nested namespace so I can invoke it easily when needed. Now when I need formatted text I can just supply a c string or std::string format and my parameters, and get back a nice std::string instance in return. But there's a catch! I can't pass in a std::string as a parameter because the old-school c variable argument list can't handle objects. If I try to do that, I will get a “warning: cannot pass objects of non-POD type 'struct std::string' through '...'; call will abort at runtime” warning and a segmentation fault at runtime. The work around (at least for std::string objects) is to invoke the c_str() method on the string parameter instance. So for example

    string argument = "a string instance";
string result = FormatString("I can format a %s parameter!", argument.c_str());


allows me to supply std::string arguments as well. The c_str() function returns a pointer to a temporary buffer containing a c style string version of the string object's value.

So now I have my template style formatting and I can move on with my project. This project is my first foray into any substantial C++ programming, so if you seen any glaring problems or know a better solution, or if this little tip helped you too, please let me know by leaving a comment.

2 comments:

teknynja said...

Soon after posting this, I found this similar solution at segfault's Alt+Ctrl+Backspace blog, which includes some additional information

Unknown said...

It is also possible to do:
std::string str(512,0);
int n = sprintf(&str[0], "%s %u %d", args, go, here);
// check n for error state...
str.resize(n);

No need for extra buffers or functions. Just ensure string is large enough before the print, and resize down to fit after. Usually you'd have some knowledge of expected size so you can give a better initial size.

 
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