JavaScript equivalent to printf/String.Format

Question

I\'m looking for a good JavaScript equivalent of the C/PHP printf() or for C#/Java programmers, String.Format() (IFormatProvider for .

Answer 1

I want to share my solution for the 'problem'. I haven't re-invented the wheel but tries to find a solution based on what JavaScript already does. The advantage is, that you get all implicit conversions for free. Setting the prototype property $ of String gives a very nice and compact syntax (see examples below). It is maybe not the most efficient way, but in most cases dealing with output it does not have to be super optimized.

String.form = function(str, arr) {
    var i = -1;
    function callback(exp, p0, p1, p2, p3, p4) {
        if (exp=='%%') return '%';
        if (arr[++i]===undefined) return undefined;
        exp  = p2 ? parseInt(p2.substr(1)) : undefined;
        var base = p3 ? parseInt(p3.substr(1)) : undefined;
        var val;
        switch (p4) {
            case 's': val = arr[i]; break;
            case 'c': val = arr[i][0]; break;
            case 'f': val = parseFloat(arr[i]).toFixed(exp); break;
            case 'p': val = parseFloat(arr[i]).toPrecision(exp); break;
            case 'e': val = parseFloat(arr[i]).toExponential(exp); break;
            case 'x': val = parseInt(arr[i]).toString(base?base:16); break;
            case 'd': val = parseFloat(parseInt(arr[i], base?base:10).toPrecision(exp)).toFixed(0); break;
        }
        val = typeof(val)=='object' ? JSON.stringify(val) : val.toString(base);
        var sz = parseInt(p1); /* padding size */
        var ch = p1 && p1[0]=='0' ? '0' : ' '; /* isnull? */
        while (val.length

Here are a few examples:

String.format("%s %s", [ "This is a string", 11 ])
console.log("%s %s".$("This is a string", 11))
var arr = [ "12.3", 13.6 ]; console.log("Array: %s".$(arr));
var obj = { test:"test", id:12 }; console.log("Object: %s".$(obj));
console.log("%c", "Test");
console.log("%5d".$(12)); // '   12'
console.log("%05d".$(12)); // '00012'
console.log("%-5d".$(12)); // '12   '
console.log("%5.2d".$(123)); // '  120'
console.log("%5.2f".$(1.1)); // ' 1.10'
console.log("%10.2e".$(1.1)); // '   1.10e+0'
console.log("%5.3p".$(1.12345)); // ' 1.12'
console.log("%5x".$(45054)); // ' affe'
console.log("%20#2x".$("45054")); // '    1010111111111110'
console.log("%6#2d".$("111")); // '     7'
console.log("%6#16d".$("affe")); // ' 45054'