How can I format a std::string using a collection of arguments?

Question

Is it possible to format std::string passing a set of arguments?

Currently I am formatting the string this way:

string helloString = \"Hello         


        

Answer 1

The most C++-ish way to achieve sprintf-like functionality would be to use stringstreams.

Here is an example based on your code:

#include 

// ...

std::stringstream ss;
std::vector tokens;
ss << "Hello " << tokens.at(0) << " and " << tokens.at(1);

std::cout << ss.str() << std::endl;

Pretty handy, isn't it ?

Of course, you get the full benefit of IOStream manipulation to replace the various sprintf flags, see here http://www.fredosaurus.com/notes-cpp/io/omanipulators.html for reference.

A more complete example:

#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 

int main() {
  std::stringstream s;
  s << "coucou " << std::setw(12) << 21 << " test";

  std::cout << s.str() << std::endl;
  return 0;
}

which prints:

coucou           21 test

Edit:

As pointed by the OP, this way of doing things does not allow for variadic arguments, because there is no `template' string built beforehand allowing the stream to iterate over the vector and insert data according to placeholders.