C++ equivalent of StringBuffer/StringBuilder?

Question

Is there a C++ Standard Template Library class that provides efficient string concatenation functionality, similar to C#'s StringBuilder or Java's StringBuffer?

Answer 1

std::string's += doesn't work with const char* (what stuff like "string to add" appear to be), so definitely using stringstream is the closest to what is required - you just use << instead of +

Answer 2

The std::string.append function isn't a good option because it doesn't accept many forms of data. A more useful alternative is to use std:stringstream, like so:

#include <sstream>
// ...

std::stringstream ss;

//put arbitrary formatted data into the stream
ss << 4.5 << ", " << 4 << " whatever";

//convert the stream buffer into a string
std::string str = ss.str();

Answer 3

A convenient string builder for c++

Like many people answered before, std::stringstream is the method of choice. It works good and has a lot of conversion and formatting options. IMO it has one pretty inconvenient flaw though: You can not use it as a one liner or as an expression. You always have to write:

std::stringstream ss;
ss << "my data " << 42;
std::string myString( ss.str() );

which is pretty annoying, especially when you want to initialize strings in the constructor.

The reason is, that a) std::stringstream has no conversion operator to std::string and b) the operator << ()'s of the stringstream don't return a stringstream reference, but a std::ostream reference instead - which can not be further computed as a string stream.

The solution is to override std::stringstream and to give it better matching operators:

namespace NsStringBuilder {
template<typename T> class basic_stringstream : public std::basic_stringstream<T>
{
public:
    basic_stringstream() {}

    operator const std::basic_string<T> () const                                { return std::basic_stringstream<T>::str();                     }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (bool _val)                             { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (char _val)                             { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (signed char _val)                      { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (unsigned char _val)                    { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (short _val)                            { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (unsigned short _val)                   { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (int _val)                              { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (unsigned int _val)                     { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (long _val)                             { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (unsigned long _val)                    { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (long long _val)                        { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (unsigned long long _val)               { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (float _val)                            { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (double _val)                           { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (long double _val)                      { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (void* _val)                            { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (std::streambuf* _val)                  { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (std::ostream& (*_val)(std::ostream&))  { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (std::ios& (*_val)(std::ios&))          { std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (std::ios_base& (*_val)(std::ios_base&)){ std::basic_stringstream<T>::operator << (_val); return *this; }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (const T* _val)                         { return static_cast<basic_stringstream<T>&>(std::operator << (*this,_val)); }
    basic_stringstream<T>& operator<<   (const std::basic_string<T>& _val)      { return static_cast<basic_stringstream<T>&>(std::operator << (*this,_val.c_str())); }
};

typedef basic_stringstream<char>        stringstream;
typedef basic_stringstream<wchar_t>     wstringstream;
}

With this, you can write things like

std::string myString( NsStringBuilder::stringstream() << "my data " << 42 )

even in the constructor.

I have to confess I didn't measure the performance, since I have not used it in an environment which makes heavy use of string building yet, but I assume it won't be much worse than std::stringstream, since everything is done via references (except the conversion to string, but thats a copy operation in std::stringstream as well)

Answer 4

You can use .append() for simply concatenating strings.

std::string s = "string1";
s.append("string2");

I think you might even be able to do:

std::string s = "string1";
s += "string2";

As for the formatting operations of C#'s StringBuilder, I believe snprintf (or sprintf if you want to risk writing buggy code ;-) ) into a character array and convert back to a string is about the only option.

Answer 5

I wanted to add something new because of the following:

At a first attemp I failed to beat

std::ostringstream 's operator<<

efficiency, but with more attemps I was able to make a StringBuilder that is faster in some cases.

Everytime I append a string I just store a reference to it somewhere and increase the counter of the total size.

The real way I finally implemented it (Horror!) is to use a opaque buffer(std::vector < char > ):

• 1 byte header (2 bits to tell if following data is :moved string, string or byte[])
• 6 bits to tell lenght of byte[]

for byte [ ]

• I store directly bytes of short strings (for sequential memory access)

for moved strings (strings appended with std::move)

• The pointer to a std::string object (we have ownership)
• set a flag in the class if there are unused reserved bytes there

for strings

• The pointer to a std::string object (no ownership)

There's also one small optimization, if last inserted string was mov'd in, it checks for free reserved but unused bytes and store further bytes in there instead of using the opaque buffer (this is to save some memory, it actually make it slightly slower, maybe depend also on the CPU, and it is rare to see strings with extra reserved space anyway)

This was finally slightly faster than std::ostringstream but it has few downsides:

• I assumed fixed lenght char types (so 1,2 or 4 bytes, not good for UTF8), I'm not saying it will not work for UTF8, Just I don't checked it for laziness.
• I used bad coding practise (opaque buffer, easy to make it not portable, I believe mine is portable by the way)
• Lacks all features of ostringstream
• If some referenced string is deleted before mergin all the strings: undefined behaviour.

conclusion? use std::ostringstream

It already fix the biggest bottleneck while ganing few % points in speed with mine implementation is not worth the downsides.

Answer 6

std::string is the C++ equivalent: It's mutable.