Hi all, I'd like to create a method using some sort of variable argument list like it would be in printf style: foo(int code, const char *fmt, ...) {} ...but using boost format. Basically, the function shall compute the format string and than create a new string with the number in "code" in front of it and the result of the computed format following. It's for returning standard replies and do some stuff depending on the error code. And it must be as performant as reasonable. I only came up with something like this: void foo(int code, boost::format &fmt) { boost::format retfrmt("%d - message: "); retfrmt % code; std::cout << retfrmt.str().append(fmt.str()) << std::endl; } int main(int argc, char **argv) { reply(42, boost::format("%d test %s\n") % 23 % "Hello"); return 0; } which does what I expected: 42 - message: 23 test Hello But I don't like the usage a lot. Especially the fact that I have to write boost::format(...) when using the function. (could use a macro so that's not the killer issue) Also there seems to be a lot of unnecessary string copying involved so I wonder if this is a good way to do this. Is there any better solution to this? Thanks and greetings... Stephan