std:: runtime_format

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Utilities library
General utilities
Relational operators (deprecated in C++20)
Defined in header <format>
/*runtime-format-string*/ < char > runtime_format ( std:: string_view fmt ) noexcept ;
(1) (since C++26)
/*runtime-format-string*/ < wchar_t > runtime_format ( std:: wstring_view fmt ) noexcept ;
(2) (since C++26)

Returns an object that stores a runtime format string directly usable in user-oriented formatting functions and can be implicitly converted to std::basic_format_string .

Parameters

fmt - a string view

Return value

An object holding the runtime format string of the exposition-only type:

Class template runtime-format-string <CharT>

template < class CharT >
struct /*runtime-format-string*/ ;
( exposition only* )

Member objects

The returned object contains an exposition-only non-static data member str of type std::basic_string_view<CharT> .

Constructors and assignments

/*runtime-format-string*/ ( std:: basic_string_view < CharT > s ) noexcept ;
(1)
/*runtime-format-string*/ ( const /*runtime-format-string*/ & ) = delete ;
(2)
/*runtime-format-string*/ & operator = ( const /*runtime-format-string*/ & ) = delete ;
(3)
1) Initializes str with s .
2) Copy constructor is explicitly deleted. The type is neither copyable nor movable.
3) The assignment is explicitly deleted.

Notes

Since the return type of runtime_format is neither copyable nor movable, an attempt of passing runtime_fmt as glvalue inhibits the construction of std::basic_format_string which results in program ill-formed. To construct std::basic_format_string with runtime_format , the returned value of runtime_format is passed directly on std::basic_format_string as prvalue where copy elision is guaranteed.

auto runtime_fmt = std::runtime_format("{}");
 
auto s0 = std::format(runtime_fmt, 1); // error
auto s1 = std::format(std::move(runtime_fmt), 1); // still error
auto s2 = std::format(std::runtime_format("{}"), 1); // ok
Feature-test macro Value Std Feature
__cpp_lib_format 202311L (C++26) Runtime format strings

Example

#include <format>
#include <print>
#include <string>
#include <string_view>
 
int main()
{
    std::print("Hello {}!\n", "world");
 
    std::string fmt;
    for (int i{}; i != 3; ++i)
    {
        fmt += "{} "; // constructs the formatting string
        std::print("{} : ", fmt);
        std::println(std::runtime_format(fmt), "alpha", 'Z', 3.14, "unused");
    }
}

Output:

Hello world!
{}  : alpha
{} {}  : alpha Z
{} {} {}  : alpha Z 3.14

See also

(C++20)
stores formatted representation of the arguments in a new string
(function template)
(C++20)
non-template variant of std::format using type-erased argument representation
(function)
class template that performs compile-time format string checks at construction time
(class template)