1. Introduction
This paper fixes a number of issues in range and tuple formatting related to
handling of empty specifiers for element types and clarifies that empty and not
present format specifiers are handled equivalently.
Originally it also amended the proposed resolution of [LWG3776] to allow
omitting calls to
for empty specifiers per LEWG feedback but
this part was removed due to new LEWG feedback.
2. Changes from R1
-
Removed the permission to omit calls to
for empty or missing format specifiers per new LEWG guidance.parse -
Added calls to
for tuple element formatters.parse -
Clarified that format-spec cannot start with
per LWG feedback.} -
Improved wording of
.set_debug_format
3. Changes from R0
-
Added a comparison with potential alternative resolutions of the nested range/tuple formatting bug.
4. Proposal
[LWG3776] "Avoid parsing format-spec if it is not present or empty" proposed
omitting the call to
for empty format specifiers
(format-spec in [format.string.general] of [N4917]).
Consider the following example:
struct S {}; template <> struct std :: formatter < S > { constexpr auto parse ( format_parse_context & ctx ) { return ctx . begin (); } auto format ( S , format_context & ctx ) const { return ctx . out (); } }; int main () { auto s1 = std :: format ( "{}" , S ()); // (1) no format-spec auto s2 = std :: format ( "{:}" , S ()); // (2) empty format-spec }
In (1) format-spec is not present and in (2) it is present but empty.
There is nothing to parse in both of these cases and therefore requiring
implementations to call
doesn’t make a lot of sense.
It only adds unnecessary overhead for the common case which is what [LWG3776] was proposing to eliminate. Implementation experience in {fmt} showed that
requiring the call to
has negative impact on formatting of ranges where
we had to unnecessarily call this function from multiple places. The same issue
may exist in other contexts such as format string compilation. In the tuple
case there aren’t even nested format specifiers to call the underlying
on.
Additionally [LWG3776] made a drive-by fix, clarifying that the two cases are
equivalent which was not obvious from existing wording. This is arguably even
more important than omitting
, particularly because formatting of ranges
([P2286]) doesn’t allow distinguishing between the two forms for nested
specifiers, e.g.
auto s = std :: format ( "{::}" , std :: vector < S > ( 2 )); // ^ empty format-spec for S
Having the two cases equivalent is also more intuitive and consistent with all existing standard formatters.
Library Evolution Working Group (LEWG) reviewed [LWG3776] in Kona and
approved it with the amendment that implementations are allowed but not required
to omit the call to
for empty format-spec.
Barry Revzin pointed out an existing limitation of the formatting ranges design
that requires calling
from the
function. However,
as discovered by Mark de Wever while implementing ranges formatting in libc++,
the
specialization for tuples already omits the call to
for the underlying type so we need to fix this anyway. The following example
illustrates the fix:
auto s = fmt :: format ( "{}" , std :: make_tuple ( std :: make_tuple ( 'a' )));
Before | After |
---|---|
|
|
This paper amends the proposed resolution of [LWG3776] per LEWG feedback and
makes the necessary changes to the
API both to enable the
proposed resolution and to fix tuple formatting. It also fixes a specification
bug in
that doesn’t mention calling
for the
underlying formatter. This proposal has been implemented in [FMT] and in a
branch of [LIBCXX].
Some potential alternative resolutions for the nested range/tuple formatting bug are:
-
Make range-based formatters conditionally debug-enabled specializations (S1).
-
Always call the underlying formatter
function (S2).parse -
Default the output type of debug-enabled specializations in the constructor (S3).
The table below compares alternative solutions with the earlier version (R1) of the current proposal denoted as S0:
Type
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Format
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Before
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S1 & S2
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S3
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S0
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S1 and S2 are inconsistent with the resolution of [LWG3776] earlier approved by LEWG and were not originally proposed. However, after LEWG reversed its two earlier decisions we are effectively stuck with S2 and the other options are only included for information.
S3 is similar to S0 and the difference is that in S3
the default of the element type is changed to the debug format. This means that
users have to give explicit specifiers to get the default format, e.g.
instead of
:
auto v = std :: vector < char > { 'a' }; auto s1 = std :: format ( "{::}" , v ); // ['a'] in S3, [a] in S0 auto s2 = std :: format ( "{::c}" , v ); // [a] in both S0 and S3
On the other hand combining the debug format with other specifiers such as width is easier in S3:
auto v = std :: vector < char > { 'a' }; auto s1 = std :: format ( "{::4}" , v ); // ['a' ] in S3, [a ] in S0 auto s2 = std :: format ( "{::4?}" , v ); // ['a' ] in both S0 and S3
5. LEWG Poll Results
POLL: Relax the requirements table 74 and 75 to make the optimization allowed by the issue resolution of LWG3776 a QoI issue with additional changes to the handle class removed
SF | F | N | A | SA |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Outcome: consensus in favour
POLL: Adopt the amended proposed resolution of LWG3776 "Avoid parsing format-spec if it is not present or empty". Return the issue to LWG for C++23 (to be confirmed by electronic polling)
SF | F | N | A | SA |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Outcome: weak consensus in favour
6. Wording
This wording is relative to [N4917].
Modify [format.string.general] as indicated:
-1- ...
format-specifier:
format-spec
format-spec:
as specified by the
specialization for the argument type
;
cannot start with
Modify 22.14.6.1 [formatter.requirements] as indicated:
-3- Given character type
, output iterator type
, and formatting
argument type
, in Table 74 and Table 75:
...
points to the beginning of the format-spec (22.14.2
[format.string]) of the replacement field being formatted in the format string.
If format-spec is
not present or
empty then either
or
.
-2- Let
be either
or
. Each specialization of
is either enabled or disabled, as described below. A debug-enabled specialization of
additionally provides a public, constexpr,
non-static member function
which modifies the state of the
setting the presentation type
to debug, which is represented by
in std-format-spec, if
is true
and the default otherwise.
to be as if the type of the std-format-spec parsed by the last call to
Each header that declares the
template
were
.
provides the following enabled specializations:
...
namespace std { template < class T , class charT = char > requires same_as < remove_cvref_t < T > , T > && formattable < T , charT > class range_formatter { ... constexpr const formatter < T , charT >& underlying () const { return underlying_ ; } constexpr range_formatter (); template < class ParseContext > constexpr typename ParseContext :: iterator parse ( ParseContext & ctx ); }; }
...
Effects: Equivalent to:constexpr void set_brackets ( basic_string_view < charT > opening , basic_string_view < charT > closing );
opening - bracket_ = opening ; closing - bracket_ = closing ;
Effects: Callsconstexpr range_formatter ();
underlying_ . set_debug_format ( true)
if it is a valid
expression.
template < class ParseContext > constexpr typename ParseContext :: iterator parse ( ParseContext & ctx );
Effects: Parses the format
specifier
specifiers
as a range-format-spec and stores the parsed specifiers in
. The values of
,
, and
are
modified if and only if required by the range-type or the
option, if
present.
If:
-
the range-type is neither
nors
,? s -
is a valid expression, andunderlying_ . set_debug_format () -
there is no range-underlying-spec,
underlying_ underlying_ . set_debug_format ()
.
If there is a range-underlying-spec, then calls
if that is a valid expression. Then calls
after having advanced
to the beginning of the range-underlying-spec, if any.
In [format.range.fmtstr]:
namespace std { template < range_format K , ranges :: input_ range R , class charT > requires ( K == range_format :: string || K == range_format :: debug_string ) struct range - default - formatter < K , R , charT > { ... public : constexpr range - default - formatter (); template < class ParseContext > constexpr typename ParseContext :: iterator parse ( ParseContext & ctx ); ... }; }
Effects: Callsconstexpr range - default - formatter ();
underlying_ . set_debug_format ( true)
if it is a valid
expression and K == range_format :: debug_string
.
template < class ParseContext > constexpr typename ParseContext :: iterator parse ( ParseContext & ctx );
-2- Effects: Equivalent to:
auto i = underlying_ . parse ( ctx ); if constexpr ( K == range_format :: debug_string ) { underlying_ . set_debug_format ( true); } return i ; return underlying_ . parse ( ctx );
In [format.tuple]:
-1- For each of
and
, the library provides the following formatter
specialization where pair-or-tuple is the name of the template:
namespace std { template < class charT , formattable < charT > ... Ts > struct formatter < pair - or - tuple < Ts ... > , charT > { ... constexpr void set_brackets ( basic_string_view < charT > opening , basic_string_view < charT > closing ); constexpr formatter (); template < class ParseContext > constexpr typename ParseContext :: iterator parse ( ParseContext & ctx ); }; }
...
constexpr void set_brackets ( basic_string_view < charT > opening , basic_string_view < charT > closing );
-6- Effects: Equivalent to:
opening - bracket_ = opening ; closing - bracket_ = closing ;
Effects: For each elementconstexpr formatter ();
e
in underlying_
, if e . set_debug_format ( true)
is a valid expression, calls e . set_debug_format ( true)
.
template < class ParseContext > constexpr typename ParseContext :: iterator parse ( ParseContext & ctx );
-7- Effects: Parses the format
specifier
specifiers
as a tuple-format-spec
and
,
stores the parsed specifiers in
and advances
to the end of the parsed input
.
The values of
,
, and
are
modified if and only if required by the tuple-type, if present.
For each
element
For each
element
in
, if
is a valid expression, calls
.
in
, calls
.
-8- Returns: An iterator past the end of the tuple-format-spec.
Throws:format_error
if ctx . begin () != ctx . end ()
and * ctx . begin () != '}'
after parsing tuple-format-spec and before invoking e . parse ( ctx )
for each element e
in underlying_
.
7. Acknowledgements
Thanks to Barry Revzin and Mark de Wever for pointing out issues with debug formatting of ranges and tuples.