String::Print

The Object Oriented interface

See functions printi(), sprinti(), printp(), and sprintp(): you can also call them as method.

  use String::Print 'oo';
  my $f = String::Print->new(%config);
  $f->printi($format, @params);
  # exactly the same functionality:
  use String::Print 'printi', %config;
  printi $format, @params;

The Object Oriented interface wins when you need the same configuration in multiple source files, or when you need different configurations within one program. In these cases, the hassle of explicitly using the object has some benefits.

Constructors

String::Print->new(%options)

 -Option     --Default
  modifiers    [ qr/^%\S+/ = \&format_printf]>
  serializers  <useful defaults>
    

  my $f = String::Print->new
    ( modifiers   => [ EUR   => sub {sprintf "%5.2f e", $_[0]} ]
    , serializers => [ UNDEF => sub {'-'} ]
    );
  $f->printi("price: {p EUR}", p => 3.1415); # price: XX3.14 e
  $f->printi("count: {c}", c => undef);      # count: -

Attributes

$obj->addModifiers(PAIRS)

The PAIRS are a combination of an selector and a CODE which processes the value when the modifier matches. The selector is a string or (preferred) a regular expression. Later modifiers with the same name overrule earlier definitions. You may also specify an ARRAY of modifiers per "print".

See section "Interpolation: Modifiers" about the details.

Why use "printi()", not "printf()"?

The "printf()" function is provided by Perl's CORE; you do not need to install any module to use it. Why would you use consider using this module?

translating

"printf()" uses positional parameters, where printi() uses names to refer to the values to be filled-in. Especially in a set-up with translations, where the format strings get extracted into PO-files, it is much clearer to use names. This is also a disadvantage of printp()

pluggable serializers

"printi()" supports serialization for specific data-types: how to interpolate "undef", HASHes, etc.

pluggable modifiers

Especially useful in context of translations, the FORMAT string may contain (language specific) helpers to insert the values correctly.

correct use of utf8

Sized string formatting in "printf()" is broken: it takes your string as bytes, not Perl strings (which may be utf8). In unicode, one "character" may use many bytes. Also, some characters are displayed double wide, for instance in Chinese. The printi() implementation will use Unicode::GCString for correct behavior.

Three components

To fill-in a FORMAT, three clearly separated components play a role:

1. modifiers

How to change the provided values, for instance to hide locale differences.

2. serializer

How to represent (the modified) the values correctly, for instance "undef" and ARRAYs.

3. conversion

The standard UNIX format rules, like %d. One conversion rule has been added 'S', which provides unicode correct behavior.

Simplified:

  # sprinti() replaces "{$key$modifiers$conversion}" by
  $conversion->($serializer->($modifiers->($args{$key})))
  # sprintp() replaces "%pos{$modifiers}$conversion" by
  $conversion->($serializer->($modifiers->($arg[$pos])))

Example:

  printi "price: {price X %-10s}", price => $cost;
  printp "price: %-10{X}s", $cost;
  $conversion = column width %-10s
  $serializer = show float as string
  $modifier   = X to local currency
  $value      = $cost (in X)

Interpolation: Serialization

The 'interpolation' functions have named VARIABLES to be filled-in, but also additional OPTIONS. To distinguish between the OPTIONS and VARIABLES (both a list of key-value pairs), the keys of the OPTIONS start with an underscore "_". As result of this, please avoid the use of keys which start with an underscore in variable names. On the other hand, you are allowed to interpolate OPTION values in your strings.

There is no way of checking beforehand whether you have provided all values to be interpolated in the translated string. When you refer to value which is missing, it will be interpreted as "undef".

CODE

When a value is passed as CODE reference, that function will get called to return the value to be filled in. For interpolating, the following rules apply:

strings

Simple scalar values are interpolated "as is"

SCALAR

Takes the value where the scalar reference points to.

ARRAY

All members will be interpolated with ",X" between the elements. Alternatively (maybe nicer), you can pass an interpolation parameter via the "_join" OPTION.

  printi "matching files: {files}", files => \@files, _join => ', '
    

HASH

By default, HASHes are interpolated with sorted keys,

   $key => $value, $key2 => $value2, ...
    

There is no quoting on the keys or values (yet). Usually, this will produce an ugly result anyway.

Objects

With the "serialization" parameter, you can overrule the interpolation of above defaults, but also add rules for your own objects. By default, objects get stringified.

  serialization => [ $myclass => \&name_in_reverse ]
  sub name_in_reverse($$$)
  {   my ($formatter, $object, $args) = @_;
      # the $args are all parameters to be filled-in
      scalar reverse $object->name;
  }
    

Interpolation: Modifiers

Modifiers are used to change the value to be inserted, before the characters get interpolated in the line.

Modifiers: unix format

Next to the name, you can specify a format code. With (gnu) "gettext()", you often see this:

 printf gettext("approx pi: %.6f\n"), PI;

Locale::TextDomain has two ways:

 printf __"approx pi: %.6f\n", PI;
 print __x"approx pi: {approx}\n", approx => sprintf("%.6f", PI);

The first does not respect the wish to be able to reorder the arguments during translation (although there are ways to work around that) The second version is quite long. The content of the translation table differs between the examples.

With "Log::Report", above syntaxes do work, but you can also do:

 # with optional translations
 print __x"approx pi: {pi%.6f}\n", pi => PI;

The base for "__x()" is the printi() provided by this module. Internally, it will call "printi" to fill in parameters:

 printi   "approx pi: {pi%.6f}\n", pi => PI;

Another example:

 printi "{perms} {links%2d} {user%-8s} {size%10d} {fn}\n"
   , perms => '-rw-r--r--', links => 7, user => 'me'
   , size => 12345, fn => $filename;

An additional advantage is the fact that not all languages produce comparable length strings. Now, the translators can take care that the layout of tables is optimal. Above example in printp() syntax, shorter but less maintainable:

 printp "%s %2d %-8s 10d %s\n"
   , '-rw-r--r--', 7, 'me', 12345, $filename;

Modifiers: unix format improvements

The POSIX "printf()" does not handle unicode strings. Perl does understand that the 's' modifier may need to insert utf8 so does not count bytes but characters. "printi()" does not use characters but "grapheme clusters" via Unicode::GCString. Now, also composed characters do work correctly.

Additionally, you can use the new 'S' conversion to count in columns. In fixed-width fonts, graphemes can have width 0, 1 or 2. For instance, Chinese characters have width 2. When printing in fixed-width, this 'S' is probably the better choice over 's'. When the field does not specify its width, then there is no performance penalty for using 'S'.

Modifiers: private modifiers

You may pass your own modifiers. A modifier consists of a selector and a CODE, which is called when the selector matches. The selector is either a string or a regular expression.

  # in Object Oriented syntax:
  my $f = String::Print->new
    ( modifiers => [ qr/[XX]/ => \&money ]
    );
  # in function syntax:
  use String::Print 'printi', 'sprinti'
    , modifiers => [ qr/[XX]/ => \&money ];
  # the implementation:
  sub money$$$$)
  { my ($formatter, $modif, $value, $args) = @_;
      $modif eq 'X' ? sprintf("%.2f EUR", $value+0.0001)
    : $modif eq 'X' ? sprintf("%.2f GBP", $value/1.16+0.0001)
    :                 'ERROR';
  }

Using printp() makes it a little shorter, but will become quite complex when there are more parameter in one string.

  printi "price: {pX}", p => $pi;   # price: 3.14 EUR
  printi "price: {pX}", p => $pi;   # price: 2.71 GBP
  printp "price: %{X}s", $pi;       # price: 3.14 EUR
  printp "price: %{X}s", $pi;       # price: 2.71 GBP

This is very useful in the translation context, where the translator can specify abstract formatting rules. As example, see the (GNU) gettext files, in the translation table for Dutch into English. The translator tells us which currency to use in the display.

  msgid  "kostprijs: {pX}"
  msgstr "price: {pX}"

Another example. Now, we want to add timestamps. In this case, we decide for modifier names in "\w", so we need a blank to separate the parameter from the modifer.

  use POSIX  qw/strftime/;
  use String::Print modifiers => [ qr/T|DT|D/ => \&_timestamp ];
  sub _timestamp($$$$)
    { my ($formatter, $modif, $value, $args) = @_;
      my $time_format
        = $modif eq 'T'  ? '%T'
        : $modif eq 'D'  ? '%F'
        : $modif eq 'DT' ? '%FT%TZ'
        :                  'ERROR';
      strftime $time_format, gmtime($value);
    };
  printi "time: {t T}",  t => $now;  # time: 10:59:17
  printi "date: {t D }", t => $now;  # date: 2013-04-13
  printi "both: {t DT}", t => $now;  # both: 2013-04-13T10:59:17Z
  printp "time: %{T}s",  $now;       # time: 10:59:17
  printp "date: %{D}s",  $now;       # date: 2013-04-13
  printp "both: %{DT}s", $now;       # both: 2013-04-13T10:59:17Z

Modifiers: stacking

You can add more than one modifier. The modifiers detect the extend of their own information (via a regular expression), and therefore the formatter understands where one ends and the next begins.

The modifiers are called in order:

  printi "price: {pX%9s}\n", p => $p; # price: XXX123.45
  printi ">{t T%10s}<", t => $now;    # >XX12:59:17<
  printp "price: %9{X}s\n", $p;       # price: XXX123.45
  printp ">%10{T}s<", $now;           # >XX12:59:17<

Compared to other modules on CPAN

There are a quite a number of modules on CPAN which extend the functionality of "printf()". To name a few: String::Format <http://search.cpan.org/~darren/String-Format>, String::Errf <http://http://search.cpan.org/~rjbs/String-Errf>, String::Formatter <http://http://search.cpan.org/~rjbs/String-Formatter>, Text::Sprintf::Named <http://search.cpan.org/~shlomif/Text-Sprintf-Named>, Acme::StringFormat <http://search.cpan.org/~gfuji/Acme-StringFormat>, Text::sprintf <http://search.cpan.org/~sharyanto/Text-sprintfn>, Log::Sprintf <http://search.cpan.org/~frew/Log-Sprintf>, and String::Sprintf <http://search.cpan.org/~bartl/String-Sprintf>. They are all slightly different.

When the "String::Print" module was created, none of the modules mentioned above handled unicode correctly. Global configuration of serializers and modifiers is also usually not possible, sometimes provided per explicit function call. Only "String::Print" cleanly separates the roles of serializers, modifiers, and conversions.

"String::Print" is nicely integrated with Log::Report.