NAME

       pmAtomStr, pmAtomStr_r - convert a performance metric value into a string

C SYNOPSIS

       #include <pcp/pmapi.h>

       const char *pmAtomStr(const pmAtomValue *avp, int type);
       char *pmAtomStr_r(const pmAtomValue *avp, int type, char *buf, int buflen);

       cc ... -lpcp

DESCRIPTION

       All performance metric values may be encoded in a pmAtomValue union, defined as follows;

            typedef union {
                __int32_t    l;     /* 32-bit signed */
                __uint32_t   ul;    /* 32-bit unsigned */
                __int64_t    ll;    /* 64-bit signed */
                __uint64_t   ull;   /* 64-bit unsigned */
                float        f;     /* 32-bit floating point */
                double       d;     /* 64-bit floating point */
                char         *cp;   /* char ptr */
                pmValueBlock *vbp;  /* pmValueBlock ptr */
            } pmAtomValue;

       Given  the  performance  metric  value  pointed to by avp, and a performance metric type defined by type,
       pmAtomStr will generate the corresponding metric value as a string, suitable  for  diagnostic  or  report
       output.   The  pmAtomStr_r function does the same, but stores the result in a user-supplied buffer buf of
       length buflen, which should have room for at least 80 bytes.

       The value for type is typically extracted from a pmDesc structure, following a  call  to  pmLookupDesc(3)
       for a particular performance metric.

       If the type is PM_TYPE_STRING values longer than 38 characters will be truncated after 34 characters, and
       truncation shown with ellipsis ``...'' at the end of the value.

       If the type is PM_TYPE_AGGREGATE then up to the first three 32-bit words  are  displayed  as  hexadecimal
       values.

       If  the  type  is  PM_TYPE_EVENT  then  a  summary  of  the number of event records found in the value is
       generated.

       The return value from pmAtomStr is held in a single static buffer, so the returned value  is  only  valid
       until the next call to pmAtomStr.

NOTES

       pmAtomStr returns a pointer to a static buffer and hence is not thread-safe.  Multi-threaded applications
       should use pmAtomStr_r instead.

SEE ALSO

       PMAPI(3),  pmConvScale(3),  pmExtractValue(3),   pmLookupDesc(3),   pmPrintValue(3),   pmTypeStr(3)   and
       pmUnitsStr(3).