Alex MDC wrote:
Therefore I suggest that we add
operator string_type() const { return str(); }
to the interface of basic_format<>.
Any comments?
Sorry to dig this up, but I am +10 for this change.
I'm currently in the process of removing hundreds of old fixed buffer + sprintf() style log messages from our code and this would make my life a *lot* easier (not to mention more readable).
Hi Alex, Why do you prefer boost.format to sprintf? I gave up on boost.format when I realised that, like std::operator<< and boost::lexical_cast, it formats a uint8_t as a char even when I use %d. I now use something like this to get a std::string using sprintf syntax: #include <string> #include <cstdarg> #include <cstdio> #include <malloc.h> std::string format(const char* fmt,...) __attribute__ ((format (printf, 1, 2))); std::string format(const char* fmt,...) { va_list args; va_start(args,fmt); char* p; int r = vasprintf(&p,fmt,args); if (r<0) { throw "vasprintf failed"; } va_end(args); std::string s(p); free(p); return s; } Of course this lacks the ability to output types that define their own operator<<; the only one that I really miss is std::string. Maybe this can be fixed when we have variadic templates. Phil.