22 General utilities library [utilities]

22.14 Formatting [format]

22.14.6 Formatter [format.formatter]

22.14.6.6 Class template basic_format_context [format.context]

namespace std { template<class Out, class charT> class basic_format_context { basic_format_args<basic_format_context> args_; // exposition only Out out_; // exposition only public: using iterator = Out; using char_type = charT; template<class T> using formatter_type = formatter<T, charT>; basic_format_arg<basic_format_context> arg(size_t id) const noexcept; std::locale locale(); iterator out(); void advance_to(iterator it); }; }

An instance of basic_format_context holds formatting state consisting of the formatting arguments and the output iterator.

Out shall model output_iterator<const charT&>.

format_context is an alias for a specialization of basic_format_context with an output iterator that appends to string, such as back_insert_iterator<string>.

Similarly, wformat_context is an alias for a specialization of basic_format_context with an output iterator that appends to wstring.

Recommended practice: For a given type charT, implementations should provide a single instantiation of basic_format_context for appending to basic_string<charT>, vector<charT>, or any other container with contiguous storage by wrapping those in temporary objects with a uniform interface (such as a span<charT>) and polymorphic reallocation.

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basic_format_arg<basic_format_context> arg(size_t id) const noexcept;

Returns: args_.get(id).

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std::locale locale();

Returns: The locale passed to the formatting function if the latter takes one, and std::locale() otherwise.

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iterator out();

Effects: Equivalent to: return std::move(out_);

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void advance_to(iterator it);

Effects: Equivalent to: out_ = std::move(it);

[Example 1: struct S { int value; }; template<> struct std::formatter<S> { size_t width_arg_id = 0; // Parses a width argument id in the format { digit }. constexpr auto parse(format_parse_context& ctx) { auto iter = ctx.begin(); auto get_char = [&]() { return iter != ctx.end() ? *iter : 0; }; if (get_char() != '{') return iter; ++iter; char c = get_char(); if (!isdigit(c) || (++iter, get_char()) != '}') throw format_error("invalid format"); width_arg_id = c - '0'; ctx.check_arg_id(width_arg_id); return ++iter; } // Formats an S with width given by the argument width_arg_id. auto format(S s, format_context& ctx) const { int width = visit_format_arg([](auto value) -> int { if constexpr (!is_integral_v<decltype(value)>) throw format_error("width is not integral"); else if (value < 0 || value > numeric_limits<int>::max()) throw format_error("invalid width"); else return value; }, ctx.arg(width_arg_id)); return format_to(ctx.out(), "{0:x<{1}}", s.value, width); } }; std::string s = std::format("{0:{1}}", S{42}, 10); // value of s is "xxxxxxxx42" — end example]