fmt/doc/api.rst
Victor Zverovich b58c8ddeb4 Update docs
2018-03-16 16:04:12 -04:00

341 lines
9.6 KiB
ReStructuredText

.. _string-formatting-api:
*************
API Reference
*************
The {fmt} library API consists of the following parts:
* :ref:`fmt/core.h <core-api>`: the core API providing argument handling
facilities and a lightweight subset of formatting functions
* :ref:`fmt/format.h <format-api>`: the full format API providing compile-time
format string checks, output iterator and user-defined type support
* :ref:`fmt/time.h <time-api>`: date and time formatting
* :ref:`fmt/ostream.h <ostream-api>`: ``std::ostream`` support
* :ref:`fmt/printf.h <printf-api>`: ``printf`` formatting
All functions and types provided by the library reside in namespace ``fmt`` and
macros have prefix ``FMT_`` or ``fmt``.
.. _core-api:
Core API
========
``fmt/core.h`` defines the core API which provides argument handling facilities
and a lightweight subset of formatting functions.
The following functions use :ref:`format string syntax <syntax>`
imilar to that of Python's `str.format
<http://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#str.format>`_.
They take *format_str* and *args* as arguments.
*format_str* is a format string that contains literal text and replacement
fields surrounded by braces ``{}``. The fields are replaced with formatted
arguments in the resulting string.
*args* is an argument list representing objects to be formatted.
.. _format:
.. doxygenfunction:: format(string_view, const Args&...)
.. doxygenfunction:: vformat(string_view, format_args)
.. _print:
.. doxygenfunction:: print(string_view, const Args&...)
.. doxygenfunction:: vprint(string_view, format_args)
.. doxygenfunction:: print(std::FILE *, string_view, const Args&...)
.. doxygenfunction:: vprint(std::FILE *, string_view, format_args)
.. _format-api:
Named arguments
---------------
.. doxygenfunction:: fmt::arg(string_view, const T&)
Argument lists
--------------
.. doxygenclass:: fmt::basic_arg
:members:
.. doxygenclass:: fmt::basic_format_args
:members:
.. doxygenstruct:: fmt::format_args
.. doxygenfunction:: fmt::make_args(const Args&...)
Compatibility
-------------
.. doxygenclass:: fmt::basic_string_view
:members:
.. doxygentypedef:: fmt::string_view
.. doxygentypedef:: fmt::wstring_view
Format API
==========
``fmt/format.h`` defines the full format API providing compile-time format
string checks, output iterator and user-defined type support.
Compile-time format string checks
---------------------------------
.. doxygendefine:: fmt
Formatting user-defined types
-----------------------------
To make a user-defined type formattable, specialize the ``formatter<T>`` struct
template and implement ``parse`` and ``format`` methods::
#include <fmt/format.h>
struct point { double x, y; };
namespace fmt {
template <>
struct formatter<point> {
template <typename ParseContext>
constexpr auto parse(ParseContext &ctx) { return ctx.begin(); }
template <typename FormatContext>
auto format(const point &p, FormatContext &ctx) {
return format_to(ctx.begin(), "({:.1f}, {:.1f})", p.x, p.y);
}
};
}
Then you can pass objects of type ``point`` to any formatting function::
point p = {1, 2};
std::string s = fmt::format("{}", p);
// s == "(1.0, 2.0)"
In the example above the ``formatter<point>::parse`` function ignores the
contents of the format string referred to by ``ctx.begin()`` so the object will
always be formatted in the same way. See ``formatter<tm>::parse`` in
:file:`fmt/time.h` for an advanced example of how to parse the format string and
customize the formatted output.
This section shows how to define a custom format function for a user-defined
type. The next section describes how to get ``fmt`` to use a conventional stream
output ``operator<<`` when one is defined for a user-defined type.
Output iterator support
-----------------------
.. doxygenfunction:: fmt::format_to(OutputIt, string_view, const Args&...)
Literal-based API
-----------------
The following user-defined literals are defined in ``fmt/format.h``.
.. doxygenfunction:: operator""_format(const char *, std::size_t)
.. doxygenfunction:: operator""_a(const char *, std::size_t)
Utilities
---------
.. doxygenfunction:: fmt::to_string(const T&)
.. doxygenclass:: fmt::basic_memory_buffer
:protected-members:
:members:
System errors
-------------
.. doxygenclass:: fmt::system_error
:members:
.. doxygenfunction:: fmt::format_system_error
.. doxygenclass:: fmt::windows_error
:members:
.. _formatstrings:
Custom allocators
-----------------
The {fmt} library supports custom dynamic memory allocators.
A custom allocator class can be specified as a template argument to
:class:`fmt::basic_memory_buffer`::
using custom_memory_buffer =
fmt::basic_memory_buffer<char, fmt::inline_buffer_size, custom_allocator>;
It is also possible to write a formatting function that uses a custom
allocator::
using custom_string =
std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, custom_allocator>;
custom_string vformat(custom_allocator alloc, fmt::string_view format_str,
fmt::format_args args) {
custom_memory_buffer buf(alloc);
fmt::vformat_to(buf, format_str, args);
return custom_string(buf.data(), buf.size(), alloc);
}
template <typename ...Args>
inline custom_string format(custom_allocator alloc,
fmt::string_view format_str,
const Args & ... args) {
return vformat(alloc, format_str, fmt::make_args(args...));
}
Custom formatting of built-in types
-----------------------------------
It is possible to change the way arguments are formatted by providing a
custom argument formatter class::
using arg_formatter =
fmt::arg_formatter<fmt::back_insert_range<fmt::internal::buffer>>;
// A custom argument formatter that formats negative integers as unsigned
// with the ``x`` format specifier.
class custom_arg_formatter : public arg_formatter {
public:
custom_arg_formatter(fmt::context &ctx, fmt::format_specs &spec)
: arg_formatter(ctx, spec) {}
using arg_formatter::operator();
void operator()(int value) {
if (spec().type() == 'x')
(*this)(static_cast<unsigned>(value)); // convert to unsigned and format
else
arg_formatter::operator()(value);
}
};
std::string custom_vformat(fmt::string_view format_str, fmt::format_args args) {
fmt::memory_buffer buffer;
// Pass custom argument formatter as a template arg to vformat_to.
fmt::vformat_to<custom_arg_formatter>(buffer, format_str, args);
return fmt::to_string(buffer);
}
template <typename ...Args>
inline std::string custom_format(
fmt::string_view format_str, const Args &... args) {
return custom_vformat(format_str, fmt::make_args(args...));
}
std::string s = custom_format("{:x}", -42); // s == "ffffffd6"
.. doxygenclass:: fmt::ArgVisitor
:members:
.. doxygenclass:: fmt::arg_formatter_base
:members:
.. doxygenclass:: fmt::arg_formatter
:members:
.. _time-api:
Date and time formatting
========================
The library supports `strftime
<http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/chrono/c/strftime>`_-like date and time
formatting::
#include <fmt/time.h>
std::time_t t = std::time(nullptr);
// Prints "The date is 2016-04-29." (with the current date)
fmt::print("The date is {:%Y-%m-%d}.", *std::localtime(&t));
The format string syntax is described in the documentation of
`strftime <http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/chrono/c/strftime>`_.
.. _ostream-api:
``std::ostream`` support
========================
``fmt/ostream.h`` provides ``std::ostream`` support including formatting of
user-defined types that have overloaded ``operator<<``::
#include <fmt/ostream.h>
class date {
int year_, month_, day_;
public:
date(int year, int month, int day): year_(year), month_(month), day_(day) {}
friend std::ostream &operator<<(std::ostream &os, const date &d) {
return os << d.year_ << '-' << d.month_ << '-' << d.day_;
}
};
std::string s = fmt::format("The date is {}", date(2012, 12, 9));
// s == "The date is 2012-12-9"
.. doxygenfunction:: print(std::ostream&, string_view, const Args&...)
.. _printf-api:
``printf`` formatting
=====================
The header ``fmt/printf.h`` provides ``printf``-like formatting functionality.
The following functions use `printf format string syntax
<http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/fprintf.html>`_ with
the POSIX extension for positional arguments. Unlike their standard
counterparts, the ``fmt`` functions are type-safe and throw an exception if an
argument type doesn't match its format specification.
.. doxygenfunction:: printf(string_view, const Args&...)
.. doxygenfunction:: fprintf(std::FILE *, string_view, const Args&...)
.. doxygenfunction:: fprintf(std::ostream&, string_view, const Args&...)
.. doxygenfunction:: sprintf(string_view, const Args&...)
Write API
=========
The write API provides classes for writing formatted data into character
streams. It is usually faster than the `format API`_ but, as IOStreams,
may result in larger compiled code size. The main writer class is
`~fmt::basic_memory_writer` which stores its output in a memory buffer and
provides direct access to it. It is possible to create custom writers that
store output elsewhere by subclassing `~fmt::BasicWriter`.
.. doxygenclass:: fmt::BasicWriter
:members:
.. doxygenclass:: fmt::basic_memory_writer
:members:
.. doxygenclass:: fmt::BasicArrayWriter
:members:
.. doxygenclass:: fmt::BasicStringWriter
:members:
.. doxygenfunction:: bin(int)
.. doxygenfunction:: oct(int)
.. doxygenfunction:: hex(int)
.. doxygenfunction:: hexu(int)
.. doxygenfunction:: pad(int, unsigned, Char)