Pretty-print std::tuple

Kerrek SB picture Kerrek SB · Jun 5, 2011 · Viewed 25.2k times · Source

This is a follow-up to my previous question on pretty-printing STL containers, for which we managed to develop a very elegant and fully general solution.


In this next step, I would like to include pretty-printing for std::tuple<Args...>, using variadic templates (so this is strictly C++11). For std::pair<S,T>, I simply say

std::ostream & operator<<(std::ostream & o, const std::pair<S,T> & p)
{
  return o << "(" << p.first << ", " << p.second << ")";
}

What is the analogous construction for printing a tuple?

I've tried various bits of template argument stack unpacking, passing indices around and using SFINAE to discover when I'm at the last element, but with no success. I shan't burden you with my broken code; the problem description is hopefully straight-forward enough. Essentially, I'd like the following behaviour:

auto a = std::make_tuple(5, "Hello", -0.1);
std::cout << a << std::endl; // prints: (5, "Hello", -0.1)

Bonus points for including the same level of generality (char/wchar_t, pair delimiters) as the the previous question!

Answer

Xeo picture Xeo · Jun 5, 2011

Yay, indices~

namespace aux{
template<std::size_t...> struct seq{};

template<std::size_t N, std::size_t... Is>
struct gen_seq : gen_seq<N-1, N-1, Is...>{};

template<std::size_t... Is>
struct gen_seq<0, Is...> : seq<Is...>{};

template<class Ch, class Tr, class Tuple, std::size_t... Is>
void print_tuple(std::basic_ostream<Ch,Tr>& os, Tuple const& t, seq<Is...>){
  using swallow = int[];
  (void)swallow{0, (void(os << (Is == 0? "" : ", ") << std::get<Is>(t)), 0)...};
}
} // aux::

template<class Ch, class Tr, class... Args>
auto operator<<(std::basic_ostream<Ch, Tr>& os, std::tuple<Args...> const& t)
    -> std::basic_ostream<Ch, Tr>&
{
  os << "(";
  aux::print_tuple(os, t, aux::gen_seq<sizeof...(Args)>());
  return os << ")";
}

Live example on Ideone.


For the delimiter stuff, just add these partial specializations:

// Delimiters for tuple
template<class... Args>
struct delimiters<std::tuple<Args...>, char> {
  static const delimiters_values<char> values;
};

template<class... Args>
const delimiters_values<char> delimiters<std::tuple<Args...>, char>::values = { "(", ", ", ")" };

template<class... Args>
struct delimiters<std::tuple<Args...>, wchar_t> {
  static const delimiters_values<wchar_t> values;
};

template<class... Args>
const delimiters_values<wchar_t> delimiters<std::tuple<Args...>, wchar_t>::values = { L"(", L", ", L")" };

and change the operator<< and print_tuple accordingly:

template<class Ch, class Tr, class... Args>
auto operator<<(std::basic_ostream<Ch, Tr>& os, std::tuple<Args...> const& t)
    -> std::basic_ostream<Ch, Tr>&
{
  typedef std::tuple<Args...> tuple_t;
  if(delimiters<tuple_t, Ch>::values.prefix != 0)
    os << delimiters<tuple_t,char>::values.prefix;

  print_tuple(os, t, aux::gen_seq<sizeof...(Args)>());

  if(delimiters<tuple_t, Ch>::values.postfix != 0)
    os << delimiters<tuple_t,char>::values.postfix;

  return os;
}

And

template<class Ch, class Tr, class Tuple, std::size_t... Is>
void print_tuple(std::basic_ostream<Ch, Tr>& os, Tuple const& t, seq<Is...>){
  using swallow = int[];
  char const* delim = delimiters<Tuple, Ch>::values.delimiter;
  if(!delim) delim = "";
  (void)swallow{0, (void(os << (Is == 0? "" : delim) << std::get<Is>(t)), 0)...};
}