Converting a argc / argv construct into a va_list

Hi

I'm new here, so appologies for my first post being a request!!

I was wondering if anyone can help, I want to write a piece of code that converts an argc / argv to a variable argument list.

Basically I want to do something like the following

Code:

---

void
print_args(int argc, char *argv[])
// first arg fmt string, subsequent args
{
    if(argc == 1)
        printf(argv[1]); // assumes nothing to be substituted
    else if (argc == 2)
        printf(argv[1], argv[2]) ;
    else if (argc == 3)
        printf(argv[1], argv[2], argv[3]) ;
    // etc.
}

---

Unfortunatly I need to stick with argc / argv prototype

What I was wondering is if I could write something to create a va_list and call vprintf?

Anyone know if this is possible?


Thanks in advance

Craig

You're pretty much going to have to write your own. I'm assuming you're going to do something like:

Code:

---

./progname "foo %s bar %d" "hello" 20

---

And have it output:

Code:

---

foo hello bar 20

---

You're going to have to roll your own. Which means, you're going to have to parse the first argument, and tokenize it up into chunks, then output them one at a time. Like so:

Code:

---

foo <snip out token, replace with next argument> bar <snip out token, replace with next argument>

---

Which, if all you're doing is outputting it, is very easy, because all of your command line arguments are already strings. So you just chop the token, and strcat the next argument. Then repeat. Just throw it in a parsing loop.

Code:

---

while character[ x ] in first argument isn't null
    if this is a 'token'
        strcat the next argument (kept track of with counter) onto this string
    else
        copy this character onto the output string

---

Really easy.

If you need more than that, that is to say, if you need that 20 to be a decimal 20 for something other than just outputting text, you'll need to read the secondary token, (like the d that follows the % sign) to see what function you need to call. For example, we might use a switch to drop down with the 'd' as our switch argument, wich tells us we need to call something like atoi on that argument.

Code:

---

switch( secondarytoken )
{
    case 'd':    somevar = atoi( argv[ somecounter++ ] ); break;
    case 's':    strcpy( somebuffer, argv[ somecounter++ ] ); break;
    ...
}

---

Quzah.

Thanks for your post quzah, although.....

I've been having a look at the lib code for stdarg.h and come up with the following solution:

As I'm only looking for something to print strings, it has simplified it a bit....

Code:

---

Bool
print_args( int argc, char * argv[] )
/*
 * Takes fmt str as argv[1], and then params as argv[2...]
 */
{
        if ( argc > 2 )
        {
                vprintf(argv[1], (va_list)&argv[2]);
        }
        else if (argc == 1)
        {
                printf(argv[1]);
        }
        else
        {
                printf("No params");
        }
        return TRUE;
}

---

It isn't the most portable solution looking at the lib code, I'm on a sparc and I have a feeling it wouldn't work on a powerpc, but seems like it should do the job on most systems

> vprintf(argv[1], (va_list)&argv[2]);
Aside from the obvious hackery, I'd be very surprised if you said
./myprog "%d" 20
you'd get 20 printed out as the answer.

Oh look
./a.out "%d" 20
-1073743250

> printf(argv[1]);
Passing unknown strings to printf() is just asking for a world of pain
Just throw in a few choice "%n" conversions and watch the stack smashing fun begin

As I mentioned in my previous post, this isn't meant to be a 'new implementation of printf' hence my function not being called main!

I know that what is being passed to me are strings and strings alone, so the only substition I'm 'allowing' is %s.

I admit that if the fmt string had any other parameter it would cause problems, but if you have any other ideas I'd love to hear them!!

I suppose I could parse the format string looking for %d, %p etc, but as this is only going to pull them out as strings from argv[], so I'd then need to convert them to the appropriate form

Well you've already been shown how to do it, so have at it.


Quzah.

Yeah,Thanks guys.....
I've left it for the moment, but a more fully fledged version is on the todo list....

Thanks again