(Note: I know of Boost.Format, I'm looking for a better way to do the following.)
First a use-case example: In some countries, you name a person by calling his / her surname first and the forename last, while in other countries it's the exact opposite.
Now, for my code, I currently solve this with Boost.Format in the following fashion:
#include <boost/format.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <utility>
int main(){
using namespace boost;
int pos1 = 2, pos2 = 1;
char const* surname = "Surname", *forename = "Forename";
// decision on ordering here
bool some_condition = false;
if(some_condition)
std::swap(pos1,pos2);
char buf[64];
sprintf(buf,"Hello %c%d%c %c%d%c",'%',pos1,'%','%',pos2,'%');
// buf == "Hello %[pos1]% %[pos2]%"; with [posN] = value of posN
std::cout << format(buf) % surname % forename;
}
Now, I would rather have it like this, i.e., everything in the format line:
std::cout << format("Hello %%1%% %%2%%") % pos1 % pos2 % surname % forename;
But sadly, that doesn't work, as I get a nice parsing exception.
Is there any library to have real positional formatting? Or even a way to achieve this with Boost.Format that I don't know of?