std::runtime_format

 

C++

Compiler support

Freestanding and hosted

Language

Standard library

Standard library headers

Named requirements

Feature test macros (C++20)

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Metaprogramming library (C++11)

Diagnostics library

General utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Localizations library

Input/output library

Filesystem library (C++17)

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Concurrency support library (C++11)

Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

Utilities library

Language support Type support (basic types, RTTI) Library feature-test macros (C++20) Dynamic memory management Program utilities Coroutine support (C++20) Variadic functions is_constant_evaluated (C++20) is_within_lifetime (C++26) initializer_list (C++11) source_location (C++20) Debugging support is_debugger_present (C++26) breakpoint_if_debugging (C++26) breakpoint (C++26) Three-way comparison three_way_comparablethree_way_comparable_with (C++20)(C++20) strong_ordering (C++20) weak_ordering (C++20) partial_ordering (C++20) common_comparison_category (C++20) compare_three_way_result (C++20) compare_three_way (C++20) strong_order (C++20) weak_order (C++20) partial_order (C++20) compare_strong_order_fallback (C++20) compare_weak_order_fallback (C++20) compare_partial_order_fallback (C++20)    is_eqis_ltis_lteq (C++20)(C++20)(C++20) is_neqis_gtis_gteq (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)

General utilities Date and time Function objects Formatting library (C++20) bitset hash (C++11) Relational operators (deprecated in C++20) rel_ops::operator!=rel_ops::operator>     rel_ops::operator<=rel_ops::operator>= Integer comparison functions cmp_equalcmp_lesscmp_less_than (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)    cmp_not_equalcmp_greatercmp_greater_than (C++20)(C++20)(C++20) in_range (C++20) Swap and type operations swap ranges::swap (C++20) exchange (C++14) declval (C++11) to_underlying (C++23) forward (C++11) forward_like (C++23) move (C++11) move_if_noexcept (C++11) as_const (C++17) Common vocabulary types pair tuple (C++11) optional (C++17) any (C++17) variant (C++17) tuple_size (C++11) tuple_element (C++11) apply (C++17) make_from_tuple (C++17) expected (C++23) Elementary string conversions to_chars (C++17) from_chars (C++17) chars_format (C++17) to_chars_result (C++17) from_chars_result (C++17)

 

Formatting library

Standard format specification

Formatting functions

format (C++20)

format_to (C++20)

format_to_n (C++20)

formatted_size (C++20)

vformat (C++20)

vformat_to (C++20)

Format strings

basic_format_stringformat_stringwformat_string (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)

runtime_format (C++26)

Formatting concepts

formattable (C++23)

Formatter

formatter (C++20)

formatter<pair-or-tuple> (C++23)

formatter<range> (C++23)

range_formatter (C++23)

enable_nonlocking_formatter_optimization (C++23)

basic_format_parse_contextformat_parse_contextwformat_parse_context (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)

basic_format_contextformat_contextwformat_context (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)

range_format (C++23)

format_kind (C++23)

Formatting arguments

basic_format_arg (C++20)

basic_format_arg::handle (C++20)

basic_format_argsformat_argswformat_args (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)

visit_format_arg (C++20) (deprecated in C++26)

make_format_argsmake_wformat_args (C++20)(C++20)

Format error

format_error (C++20)

 

Defined in header <format>
/*runtime-format-string*/<char> runtime_format( std::string_view fmt ) noexcept;	(1)	(since C++26)
/*runtime-format-string*/<wchar_t> runtime_format( std::wstring_view fmt ) noexcept;	(2)	(since C++26)

Returns an object that stores a runtime format string directly usable in user-oriented formatting functions and can be implicitly converted to std::basic_format_string.

Parameters

fmt

-

a string view

Return value

An object holding the runtime format string of the exposition-only type:

Class template runtime-format-string <CharT>

template< class CharT > struct /*runtime-format-string*/;		(exposition only*)

Member objects

The returned object contains an exposition-only non-static data member str of type std::basic_string_view<CharT>.

Constructors and assignments

/*runtime-format-string*/( std::basic_string_view<CharT> s ) noexcept;	(1)
/*runtime-format-string*/( const /*runtime-format-string*/& ) = delete;	(2)
/*runtime-format-string*/& operator=( const /*runtime-format-string*/& ) = delete;	(3)

1) Initializes str with s.

2) Copy constructor is explicitly deleted. The type is neither copyable nor movable.

3) The assignment is explicitly deleted.

Notes

Since the return type of runtime_format is neither copyable nor movable, an attempt of passing runtime_fmt as glvalue inhibits the construction of std::basic_format_string which results in program ill-formed. To construct std::basic_format_string with runtime_format, the returned value of runtime_format is passed directly on std::basic_format_string as prvalue where copy elision is guaranteed.

auto runtime_fmt = std::runtime_format("{}");
 
auto s0 = std::format(runtime_fmt, 1); // error
auto s1 = std::format(std::move(runtime_fmt), 1); // still error
auto s2 = std::format(std::runtime_format("{}"), 1); // ok

Feature-test macro	Value	Std	Feature
__cpp_lib_format	202311L	(C++26)	Runtime format strings

Example

Run this code

#include <format>
#include <print>
#include <string>
#include <string_view>
 
int main()
{
    std::print("Hello {}!\n", "world");
 
    std::string fmt;
    for (int i{}; i != 3; ++i)
    {
        fmt += "{} "; // constructs the formatting string
        std::print("{} : ", fmt);
        std::println(std::runtime_format(fmt), "alpha", 'Z', 3.14, "unused");
    }
}

Output:

Hello world!
{}  : alpha
{} {}  : alpha Z
{} {} {}  : alpha Z 3.14

See also

format (C++20)	stores formatted representation of the arguments in a new string (function template)
vformat (C++20)	non-template variant of std::format using type-erased argument representation (function)
basic_format_stringformat_stringwformat_string (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)	class template that performs compile-time format string checks at construction time (class template)