Hello, I have created a modifed version of boost::stringtok() (the template function in boost\pending) with the aim of proving a more convient programmer interface. (It is called stringtok_2() below, but the interface is identical to stringtok()). The present version expects a container of objects which can be assigned a std::string. The modifed version is designed to accept a container of objects which can be converted to from std::string, at present "int" and "float" in addition to "std::string". E.g. char ac[] = "1 2 3 4 5"; std::vector<int> vi; boost::stringtok_2(vi,ac); std::vector<float> vf; boost::stringtok_2(vf,ac); std::vector<std::string> vs; boost::stringtok_2(vs,ac); As you can see in the cases for "int" and "float", the programmer can avoid having to create a vector of std::string and then convert them to int (or float) after calling stringtok. The implementation is achieved through template specialization. Behind the interface is an overloaded stringtok_2, template<typename Container, class Cvt> stringtok_2(Container l, Cvt cvt, const std::string s, const std::string ws) which takes a functor argument cvt which does the string to type conversion. The hithertoe used interface template<typename Container> stringtok_2(Container l, const std::string s, const std::string ws) calls the overloaded stringtok_2 with a converting functor string_cvt_ftr<Container::value_type>. string_cvt_ftr has a default declaration and two specializations, one for "int" and one for "float". template <class T> struct string_cvt_ftr { T operator()(const std::string& s) { return s; } }; template <> struct string_cvt_ftr<int> { int operator()(const std::string& s) { return std::atoi(s.c_str()); } }; template <> struct string_cvt_ftr<float> { float operator()(const std::string& s) { return std::atof(s.c_str()); } }; That is the partial specialization. Note that a vector of std::string can still be passed as the container argument. Since the interface semantics of are a superset of boost::stringtok(), I wonder if this could be substituted as a version-up, and use the same name. However, judging from the mail I see on this list, it is possible that some compilers might not handle it, so maybe that wouldn't be a good idea. I am sending this to boost-users since I do not currently recieve plain boost mail. I include the full code (including test code) below. Craig Hicks Engineer, KGK Tokyo //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // stringtok_2.h //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- #ifndef stringtok_2H #define stringtok_2H //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- #include <string> #include <cstring> // for strchr /***************************************************************** // modified with partial template specialization for int, float containers 2002.2.6 // Craig Hicks /***************************************************************** * This is the only part of the implementation that I don't like. * It can probably be improved upon by the reader... */ namespace stringtok_2_ns { inline bool isws (char c, char const * const wstr) { using namespace std; return (strchr(wstr,c) != NULL); } } namespace boost { /***************************************************************** * Simplistic and quite Standard, but a bit slow. This should be * templatized on basic_string instead, or on a more generic StringT * that just happens to support ::size_type, .substr(), and so on. * I had hoped that "whitespace" would be a trait, but it isn't, so * the user must supply it. Enh, this lets them break up strings on * different things easier than traits would anyhow. */ template <typename Container, typename Cvt> void stringtok_2 ( Container &l, Cvt cvt, std::string const &s, char const * const ws = " \t\n" ) { using namespace stringtok_2_ns; typedef std::string::size_type size_type; const size_type S = s.size(); size_type i = 0; while (i < S) { // eat leading whitespace while ((i < S) && (isws(s[i],ws))) ++i; if (i == S) return; // nothing left but WS // find end of word size_type j = i+1; while ((j < S) && (!isws(s[j],ws))) ++j; // add word l.push_back(cvt(s.substr(i,j-i))); // set up for next loop i = j+1; } } template <class T> struct string_cvt_ftr { T operator()(const std::string& s) { return s; } }; template <> struct string_cvt_ftr<int> { int operator()(const std::string& s) { return std::atoi(s.c_str()); } }; template <> struct string_cvt_ftr<float> { float operator()(const std::string& s) { return std::atof(s.c_str()); } }; template <typename Container> void stringtok_2 ( Container &l, std::string const &s, char const * const ws = " \t\n" ) { string_cvt_ftr<Container::value_type> cvt; stringtok_2(l, cvt, s, ws); } } // namespace boost #endif /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // test code void test_stringtok_2(std::ostream& os) /* Expected output:: int 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, float 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, string 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, */ { char ac[] = "1 2 3 4 5"; os << "int" << std::endl; std::vector<int> vi; boost::stringtok_2(vi,ac); std::copy(vi.begin(), vi.end(), std::ostream_iterator<int,char>(os,", ")); os << std::endl; os << "float" << std::endl; std::vector<float> vf; boost::stringtok_2(vf,ac); std::copy(vf.begin(), vf.end(), std::ostream_iterator<float,char>(os,", ")); os << std::endl; os << "string" << std::endl; std::vector<std::string> vs; boost::stringtok_2(vs,ac); std::copy(vs.begin(), vs.end(), std::ostream_iterator<std::string,char>(os,", ")); os << std::endl; }