This file provides documentation for GNU autosprintf library.

Copyright (C) 2002-2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

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This manual is covered by the GNU GPL.  You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL), either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). A copy of the license is at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html.

GNU autosprintf
***************

This manual documents the GNU autosprintf class, version 1.0.

Introduction
************

This package makes the C formatted output routines (fprintf et al.) usable in C++ programs, for use with the <string> strings and the <iostream> streams.

It allows to write code like

     cerr << autosprintf ("syntax error in %s:%d: %s", filename, line, errstring);

instead of

     cerr << "syntax error in " << filename << ":" << line << ": " << errstring;

The benefits of the autosprintf syntax are:

  * It reuses the standard POSIX printf facility. Easy migration from C to C++.

  * English sentences are kept together.

  * It makes internationalization possible. Internationalization requires format strings, because in some cases the translator needs to change the order of a sentence, and more generally it is easier for the translator to work with a single string for a sentence than with multiple string pieces.

  * It reduces the risk of programming errors due to forgotten state in the output stream (e.g. cout << hex; not followed by cout << dec;).

The autosprintf class
*********************

An instance of class autosprintf just contains a string with the formatted output result. Such an instance is usually allocated as an automatic storage variable, i.e. on the stack, not with new on the heap.

The constructor autosprintf (const char *format, ...) takes a format string and additional arguments, like the C function printf.

Conversions to char * and std::string are defined that return the encapsulated string.

The destructor ~autosprintf () destroys the encapsulated string.

An operator << is provided that outputs the encapsulated string to the given ostream.

Using autosprintf in own programs
*********************************

To use the autosprintf class in your programs, you need to add

     #include "autosprintf.h"
     using gnu::autosprintf;

to your source code. The include file defines the class autosprintf, in a namespace called gnu. The using statement makes it possible to use the class without the (otherwise natural) gnu:: prefix.

When linking your program, you need to link with libasprintf, because that's where the class is defined. In projects using GNU autoconf, this means adding AC_LIB_LINKFLAGS([asprintf]) to configure.in or configure.ac, and using the @LIBASPRINTF@ Makefile variable that it provides.