Subject: Getting a replacement for sprintf ?!
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Message-ID: <549607c5-cda0-173f-98e8-c9df1b30e9e0@colostate.edu>

Thomas,

Scott Hannahs made the (brilliant) suggestion earlier today of writing a _function_ to wrap the sprintf _operation_ to address the first item you raised below. (I wrote back to him directly and not to the whole list.) As soon as I get a free moment I'm going to do this and take it out for a test drive.

Best regards,
Joseph

On Mon, 25 Feb 2019 12:33 PM, Thomas Braun wrote:
> Am 24.02.2019 um 19:35 schrieb DiVerdi,Joseph:
>
> Joseph:
>
>> You have identified two separate items with your previous good
>> introduction.
>>
>> In my opinion, I agree that the need to create an intermediate string
>> is at the level of "nuisance." I really wish I didn't have to do it
>> and I think my code would look a little bit tighter if I didn't have
>> to do it yet it's not keeping me from doing anything important. I
>> would welcome a syntax that eliminates the need for creating the
>> intermediate string.
>
> Good, we are on the same page here.
>
>> On your second point I am much less troubled. I find myself
>> unencumbered by the sprintf syntax either in general or as
>> implemented in the IP. Perhaps I've subconsciously (unconsciously?)
>> trained myself to work within the existing constraints. This one is
>> not on my wish list.
>
> Well I tend write quite generic routines and I also had a couple of bugs
> already due to that sprintf limitation.
>
>> Thank you for raising issues and for raising them here. This is a
>> great form for doing it.
>>
>> Best regards, Joseph
>> --
>>
>> Joseph A. DiVerdi, Ph.D., M.B.A.
>>
>> Associate Professor of Chemistry
>>
>> Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
>>
>> +1.970.980.5868<tel:+1.970.980.5868> - http://sites.chem.colostate.edu/diverdi
>>
>> On Feb 24, 2019, at 11:17 AM, Thomas Braun <thomas.braun at virtuell-zuhause.de<mailto:thomas.braun at virtuell-zuhause.de>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Igorians,
>>
>> since quite some time I'm starting to dislike the sprintf function.
>>
>> Main reason is that I need to create a temporary string to be able to work with it and
>> also that it can not be used in arbitrary code as e.g. %s is limited to x number of characters.
>>
>> Since quite some time I've been using fmtlib [1] in my C++ projects.
>> In short it allows you to write something like
>>
>> fmt::format("The answer is {}.", 42);
>>
>> and that returns a string with the contents ?The answer is 42.?.
>>
>> Now there is no use in trying to get that exact syntax working in Igor Pro.
>>
>> But one could get quite close. Here is a hacky hack example:
>>
>> Function Examples()
>>
>> print f("Hi {s_a}!", s_a = "HAL")
>> print f("Are you up to counting from 0 to {v_a}?", v_a = 10)
>> print f("Sure ;) Wanna see {w_a}?", w_a = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10})
>> print f("In this case have fun with {s_a} and {v_a}s.", v_a=0, s_a="ones")
>>
>> End
>>
>> Function/S f(format, [v_a, s_a, w_a])
>> string format
>> variable v_a
>> string s_a
>> WAVE w_a
>>
>> variable numDefaultParams, i
>> string str, buf, w_buf
>>
>> if(ParamIsDefault(v_a))
>> numDefaultParams += 1
>> endif
>>
>> if(ParamIsDefault(s_a))
>> numDefaultParams += 1
>> endif
>>
>> if(ParamIsDefault(w_a))
>> numDefaultParams += 1
>> endif
>>
>> str = format
>>
>> if(numDefaultParams == 0)
>> // TODO check that str does not contain {}
>> return str
>> endif
>>
>> if(!ParamIsDefault(v_a))
>> // TODO make %g configurable from {}
>> sprintf buf, "%g", v_a
>> str = ReplaceString("{v_a}", str, buf)
>> endif
>>
>> if(!ParamIsDefault(s_a))
>> // TODO make configurable
>> str = ReplaceString("{s_a}", str, s_a)
>> endif
>>
>> if(!ParamIsDefault(w_a))
>> // TODO make configurable and support dimensions larger than 1D
>> // and also other wave types
>> w_buf = "["
>> for(i = 0; i < DimSize(w_a, 0); i += 1)
>> sprintf buf, "%g", w_a[i]
>> w_buf += buf
>>
>> if(i != DimSize(w_a, 0) - 1)
>> w_buf += ", "
>> endif
>> endfor
>> w_buf += "]"
>>
>> str = ReplaceString("{w_a}", str, w_buf)
>> endif
>>
>> return str
>> End
>>
>> which gives
>>
>> ?examples()
>> Hi HAL!
>> Are you up to counting from 0 to 10?
>> Sure ;) Wanna see? -> [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
>> In this case have fun with ones and 0s.
>>
>> and this is already quite nice (I think) because it avoids both my main problems with sprintf.
>>
>> My main problem at the moment is that it does not scale with the number of characters per type. If we would support up to 8 characters after the "_" we have already
>>
>> ?print/D 26^8*3
>> 626481193728
>>
>> combinations and thus a dump approach would need that many optional parameters. And to be usable we would need a way to iterate over them in a way with has sub-linear complexity.
>>
>> And we would probably also hit a hard-coded limit of the number of optional parameters or maximum line length or ....
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> Thomas
>>
>> [1]: https://github.com/fmtlib/fmt
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--
Joseph A. DiVerdi, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
+1.970.980.5868 - http://sites.chem.colostate.edu/diverdi