How to implode a vector of strings into a string (

Question

I'm looking for the most elegant way to implode a vector of strings into a string. Below is the solution I'm using now:

static std::string& implode(const std::vector<std::string>& elems, char delim, std::string& s)
{
    for (std::vector<std::string>::const_iterator ii = elems.begin(); ii != elems.end(); ++ii)
    {
        s += (*ii);
        if ( ii + 1 != elems.end() ) {
            s += delim;
        }
    }

    return s;
}

static std::string implode(const std::vector<std::string>& elems, char delim)
{
    std::string s;
    return implode(elems, delim, s);
}

Is there any others out there?

Answer 1

Here is another one that doesn't add the delimiter after the last element:

std::string concat_strings(const std::vector<std::string> &elements,
                           const std::string &separator)
{       
    if (!elements.empty())
    {
        std::stringstream ss;
        auto it = elements.cbegin();
        while (true)
        {
            ss << *it++;
            if (it != elements.cend())
                ss << separator;
            else
                return ss.str();
        }       
    }
    return "";

Answer 2

try this, but using vector instead of list

template <class T>
std::string listToString(std::list<T> l){
    std::stringstream ss;
    for(std::list<int>::iterator it = l.begin(); it!=l.end(); ++it){
        ss << *it;
        if(std::distance(it,l.end())>1)
            ss << ", ";
    }
    return "[" + ss.str()+ "]";
}

Answer 3

Because I love one-liners (they are very useful for all kinds of weird stuff, as you'll see at the end), here's a solution using std::accumulate and C++11 lambda:

std::accumulate(alist.begin(), alist.end(), std::string(), 
    [](const std::string& a, const std::string& b) -> std::string { 
        return a + (a.length() > 0 ? "," : "") + b; 
    } )

I find this syntax useful with stream operator, where I don't want to have all kinds of weird logic out of scope from the stream operation, just to do a simple string join. Consider for example this return statement from method that formats a string using stream operators (using std;):

return (dynamic_cast<ostringstream&>(ostringstream()
    << "List content: " << endl
    << std::accumulate(alist.begin(), alist.end(), std::string(), 
        [](const std::string& a, const std::string& b) -> std::string { 
            return a + (a.length() > 0 ? "," : "") + b; 
        } ) << endl
    << "Maybe some more stuff" << endl
    )).str();

Answer 4

string join(const vector<string>& vec, const char* delim)
{
    stringstream res;
    copy(vec.begin(), vec.end(), ostream_iterator<string>(res, delim));
    return res.str();
}

Answer 5

A version that uses std::accumulate:

#include <numeric>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

struct infix {
  std::string sep;
  infix(const std::string& sep) : sep(sep) {}
  std::string operator()(const std::string& lhs, const std::string& rhs) {
    std::string rz(lhs);
    if(!lhs.empty() && !rhs.empty())
      rz += sep;
    rz += rhs;
    return rz;
  }
};

int main() {
  std::string a[] = { "Hello", "World", "is", "a", "program" };
  std::string sum = std::accumulate(a, a+5, std::string(), infix(", "));
  std::cout << sum << "\n";
}

Answer 6

Use boost::algorithm::join(..):

#include <boost/algorithm/string/join.hpp>
...
std::string joinedString = boost::algorithm::join(elems, delim);

See also this question.