How to extract mixed format using istringstream

c++, formatted-input, istringstream

Solution

In IOStreams, strings (meaning both C-strings and C++ strings) have virtually no formatting requirements. Any and all characters are extracted into a string only until a whitespace character is found, or until the end of the stream is caught. In your example, you're using a string intended to eat up the commas between the important data, but the output you are experiencing is the result of the behavior I just explained: The `dummy` string doesn't just eat the comma, but also the rest of the character sequence until the next whitespace character.

To avoid this you can use a `char` for the dummy variable, which only has space for one character. And if you're looking to put `Apple 1` into a string you will need an unformatted extraction because the formatted extractor `operator>>()` only reads until whitespace. The appropriate function to use here is `std::getline()`:

string c;
char dummy;

if ((stream >> a >> dummy >> b >> dummy) &&
     std::getline(stream >> std::ws, s))
//   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
{

}

Clearing the newline after the formatted extraction is also necessary which is why I used `std::ws` to clear leading whitespace. I'm also using an `if` statement to contain the extraction in order to tell if it succeeded or not.

Any smoother way to do this would help me immensely.

You can set the classification of the comma character to a whitespace character using the `std::ctype<char>` facet of the locale imbued in the stream. This will make the use of a dummy variable unnecessary. Here's an example:

namespace detail
{
    enum options { add, remove };

    class ctype : public std::ctype<char>
    {
    private:
        static mask* get_table(const std::string& ws, options opt)
        {
            static std::vector<mask> table(classic_table(),
                                           classic_table() + table_size);
            for (char c : ws)
            {
                if (opt == add)
                    table[c] |= space;
                else if (opt == remove)
                    table[c] &= ~space;
            }
            return &table[0];
        }
    public:
        ctype(const std::string& ws, options opt)
            : std::ctype<char>(get_table(ws, opt)) { }
    };
}

class adjustws_impl
{
public:
    adjustws_impl(const std::string& ws, detail::options opt) :
        m_ws(ws),
        m_opt(opt)
    { }

    friend std::istream& operator>>(std::istream& is,
                                    const adjustws_impl& manip)
    {
        const detail::ctype* facet(new detail::ctype(manip.m_ws, manip.m_opt));

        if (!std::has_facet<detail::ctype>(is.getloc())
        {
            is.imbue(std::locale(is.getloc(), facet));
        } else
            delete facet;

        return is;
    }
private:
    std::string m_ws;
    detail::options m_opt;
};

adjustws_impl setws(const std::string& ws)
{
    return adjustws_impl(ws, detail::add);
}

adjustws_impl unsetws(const std::string& ws)
{
    return adjustws_impl(ws, detail::remove);
}

int main()
{
    std::istringstream iss("10,1.546,Apple 1");
    int a; double b; std::string c;

    iss >> setws(","); // set comma to a whitespace character

    if ((iss >> a >> b) && std::getline(iss >> std::ws, c))
    {
        // ...
    }

    iss >> unsetws(","); // remove the whitespace classification
} 

Problem

Original source