I would like to copy the contents of a vector to one long string with a custom delimiter. So far, I've tried:
// .h
string getLabeledPointsString(const string delimiter=",");
// .cpp
string Gesture::getLabeledPointsString(const string delimiter) {
vector<int> x = getLabeledPoints();
stringstream s;
copy(x.begin(),x.end(), ostream_iterator<int>(s,delimiter));
return s.str();
}
but I get
no matching function for call to ‘std::ostream_iterator<int, char, std::char_traits<char> >::ostream_iterator(std::stringstream&, const std::string&)’
I've tried with charT* but I get
error iso c++ forbids declaration of charT with no type
Then I tried using char and ostream_iterator<int>(s,&delimiter)
but I get strange characters in the string.
Can anyone help me make sense of what the compiler is expecting here?
10 Answers
Use delimiter.c_str() as the delimiter:
copy(x.begin(),x.end(), ostream_iterator<int>(s,delimiter.c_str()));
That way, you get a const char* pointing to the string, which is what ostream_operator expects from your std::string.
C++11:
vector<string> x = {"1", "2", "3"};
string s = std::accumulate(std::begin(x), std::end(x), string(),
[](string &ss, string &s)
{
return ss.empty() ? s : ss + "," + s;
});
Another way to do it:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <sstream>
using namespace std;
template <typename T>
string join(const T& v, const string& delim) {
ostringstream s;
for (const auto& i : v) {
if (&i != &v[0]) {
s << delim;
}
s << i;
}
return s.str();
}
int main() {
cout << join(vector<int>({1, 2, 3, 4, 5}), ",") << endl;
}
(c++11 range-based for loop and 'auto' though)
This is an extension to the two answers already provided above as run-time performance seemed to be a theme in the comments. I would have added it as comments, but I do not have that privilege yet.
I tested 2 implementations for run-time performance using Visual Studio 2015:
Using stringstream:
std::stringstream result;
auto it = vec.begin();
result << (unsigned short)*it++;
for (; it != vec.end(); it++) {
result << delimiter;
result << (unsigned short)*it;
}
return result.str();
Using accumulate:
std::string result = std::accumulate(std::next(vec.begin()), vec.end(),
std::to_string(vec[0]),
[&delimiter](std::string& a, uint8_t b) {
return a + delimiter+ std::to_string(b);
});
return result;
Release build run-time performance was close with a couple subtleties.
The accumulate implementation was slightly faster (20-50ms, ~10-30% of the overall run-time (~180ms) on 1000 iterations over a 256 element vector). However, the accumulate implementation was only faster when the a parameter to the lambda function was passed by reference. Passing the a parameter by value resulted in a similar run-time difference favoring the stringstream implementation. The accumulate implementation also improved some when the result string was returned directly rather than assigned to a local variable that was immediately returned. YMMV with other C++ compilers.
The Debug build was 5-10 times slower using accumulate so I think the extra string creation noted in several comments above is resolved by the optimizer.
I was looking at a specific implementation using a vector of uint8_t values. The full test code follows:
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
#include <numeric>
#include <chrono>
using namespace std;
typedef vector<uint8_t> uint8_vec_t;
string concat_stream(const uint8_vec_t& vec, string& delim = string(" "));
string concat_accumulate(const uint8_vec_t& vec, string& delim = string(" "));
string concat_stream(const uint8_vec_t& vec, string& delimiter)
{
stringstream result;
auto it = vec.begin();
result << (unsigned short)*it++;
for (; it != vec.end(); it++) {
result << delimiter;
result << (unsigned short)*it;
}
return result.str();
}
string concat_accumulate(const uint8_vec_t& vec, string& delimiter)
{
return accumulate(next(vec.begin()), vec.end(),
to_string(vec[0]),
[&delimiter](string& a, uint8_t b) {
return a + delimiter + to_string(b);
});
}
int main()
{
const int elements(256);
const int iterations(1000);
uint8_vec_t test(elements);
iota(test.begin(), test.end(), 0);
int i;
auto stream_start = chrono::steady_clock::now();
string join_with_stream;
for (i = 0; i < iterations; ++i) {
join_with_stream = concat_stream(test);
}
auto stream_end = chrono::steady_clock::now();
auto acc_start = chrono::steady_clock::now();
string join_with_acc;
for (i = 0; i < iterations; ++i) {
join_with_acc = concat_accumulate(test);
}
auto acc_end = chrono::steady_clock::now();
cout << "Stream Results:" << endl;
cout << " elements: " << elements << endl;
cout << " iterations: " << iterations << endl;
cout << " runtime: " << chrono::duration<double, milli>(stream_end - stream_start).count() << " ms" << endl;
cout << " result: " << join_with_stream << endl;
cout << "Accumulate Results:" << endl;
cout << " elements: " << elements << endl;
cout << " iterations: " << iterations << endl;
cout << " runtime: " << chrono::duration<double, milli>(acc_end - acc_start).count() << " ms" << endl;
cout << " result:" << join_with_acc << endl;
return 0;
}
std::string Gesture::getLabeledPointsString(const std::string delimiter) {
return boost::join(getLabeledPoints(), delimiter);
}
I am not that convinced about introducting getLabeledPointsString at this point ;)
string join(const vector<string> & v, const string & delimiter = ",") {
string out;
if (auto i = v.begin(), e = v.end(); i != e) {
out += *i++;
for (; i != e; ++i) out.append(delimiter).append(*i);
}
return out;
}
A few points:
- you don't need an extra conditional to avoid an extra trailing delimiter
- make sure you don't crash when the vector is empty
- don't make a bunch of temporaries (e.g. don't do this: x = x + d + y)
I know this is an old question, but I have a similar problem and none of the above answers suits all my needs, so I'll post here my solution.
My requirements are:
- I need a generic solution able to work with any iterable container and with any data type, of course for custom data types you'll have to provide a suitable
operator<<() - I need an easy way to apply transforms to the data (for example, by default
int8_tanduint8_tare handled aschars bystd::stringstream: maybe this is what you want or maybe not, so I want to be able to make this choice) - I want to be able to specify the delimiter as a string literal, but also accept
chars andstd::strings - I like to have the ability to add enclosing characters, but this is probably very personal taste
This assumes C++11.
I choose to use std::stringstream because it implements a standard but still customizable way to convert something to a string.
Any comments are very welcome.
#include <iterator>
#include <sstream>
#include <string>
#include <iostream> // used only in main
#include <vector> // used only in main
template< typename T >
typename std::iterator_traits< T >::value_type
identity(typename std::iterator_traits< T >::value_type v) {
return v;
}
template< typename T > using IdentityType = decltype(identity< T >);
template< class InItr,
typename StrType1 = const char *,
typename StrType2 = const char *,
typename StrType3 = const char *,
typename Transform = IdentityType< InItr > >
std::string join(InItr first,
InItr last,
StrType1 &&sep = ",",
StrType2 &&open = "[",
StrType3 &&close = "]",
Transform tr = identity< InItr >) {
std::stringstream ss;
ss << std::forward< StrType2 >(open);
if (first != last) {
ss << tr(*first);
++first;
}
for (; first != last; ++first)
ss << std::forward< StrType1 >(sep) << tr(*first);
ss << std::forward< StrType3 >(close);
return ss.str();
}
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
const std::vector< int > vec{2, 4, 6, 8, 10};
std::cout << join(vec.begin(), vec.end()) << std::endl;
std::cout << join(vec.begin(), vec.end(), "|", "(", ")",
[](int v){ return v + v; }) << std::endl;
const std::vector< char > vec2{2, 4, 6, 8, 10};
std::cout << join(vec2.begin(), vec2.end()) << std::endl;
std::cout << join(vec2.begin(), vec2.end(), "|", "(", ")",
[](char v){ return static_cast<int>(v); }) << std::endl;
}
outputs something like:
[2,4,6,8,10]
(4|8|12|16|20)
[<unprintable-char>,<unprintable-char>,<unprintable-char>,
]
(2|4|6|8|10)
There was absolultey no need for super fancy stuff. Simple stuff like this would have achieved the same results.
int vectorCounter=0;
//this is where you loop over the contents of your vector
for (auto it = StrVec.begin(); it != StrVec.end(); ++it){
vectorCounter++;
//this print contents of the vector
cout << *it;
//this will put a custom delimiter
if (vectorCounter < StrVec.size())
{
//This is where you define your delimiter
cout << ",";
}
}//end-for-loop
OUTPUT:
1,2,3,4
int array[ 6 ] = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 };
std::vector< int > a( array, array + 6 );
stringstream dataString;
ostream_iterator<int> output_iterator(dataString, ";"); // here ";" is delimiter
std::copy(a.begin(), a.end(), output_iterator);
cout<<dataString.str()<<endl;
output= 1;2;3;4;5;6;
faster variant:
vector<string> x = {"1", "2", "3"};
string res;
res.reserve(16);
std::accumulate(std::begin(x), std::end(x), 0,
[&res](int &, string &s)
{
if (!res.empty())
{
res.append(",");
}
res.append(s);
return 0;
});
it doesn't create interim strings, but just allocate memory once for the whole string result and appends each elem to the end of &res