std::format

 

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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>
template< class... Args > std::string format( std::format_string<Args...> fmt, Args&&... args );	(1)	(since C++20)
template< class... Args > std::wstring format( std::wformat_string<Args...> fmt, Args&&... args );	(2)	(since C++20)
template< class... Args > std::string format( const std::locale& loc,                     std::format_string<Args...> fmt, Args&&... args );	(3)	(since C++20)
template< class... Args > std::wstring format( const std::locale& loc,                      std::wformat_string<Args...> fmt, Args&&... args );	(4)	(since C++20)

Format args according to the format string fmt, and return the result as a string. If present, loc is used for locale-specific formatting. Performs a compile-time validity check on the format string.

1) Equivalent to return std::vformat(fmt.get(), std::make_format_args(args...));.

2) Equivalent to return std::vformat(fmt.get(), std::make_wformat_args(args...));.

3) Equivalent to return std::vformat(loc, fmt.get(), std::make_format_args(args...));.

4) Equivalent to return std::vformat(loc, fmt.get(), std::make_wformat_args(args...));.

Below, let CharT be char for overloads (1,3), wchar_t for overloads (2,4).

The behavior is undefined if std::formatter<Ti, CharT> does not meet the BasicFormatter requirements for any Ti in Args (as required by std::make_format_args and std::make_wformat_args).

Since P2216R3, at compile time, std::format checks if fmt is a valid format string for the types Args (but not touching the values), via the helper type std::basic_format_string. If an error is found, it will be treated as a compilation error. To support this,

• for each type T in Args, std::formatter<T, CharT>::parse() must be constexpr; and
• it is an error to provide a format string that is not a compile-time constant.

std::vformat does not perform this compile-time check and thus does not have the above two requirements.

Parameters

fmt	-	an object that represents the format string. The format string consists of ordinary characters (except { and }), which are copied unchanged to the output, escape sequences {{ and }}, which are replaced with { and } respectively in the output, and replacement fields. Each replacement field has the following format: { arg-id (optional) } (1) { arg-id (optional) : format-spec } (2) 1) replacement field without a format specification 2) replacement field with a format specification arg-id - specifies the index of the argument in args whose value is to be used for formatting; if it is omitted, the arguments are used in order. The arg-id s in a format string must all be present or all be omitted. Mixing manual and automatic indexing is an error. format-spec - the format specification defined by the std::formatter specialization for the corresponding argument. Cannot start with }. For basic types and standard string types, the format specification is interpreted as standard format specification. For chrono types, the format specification is interpreted as chrono format specification. For range types, the format specification is interpreted as range format specification. For std::pair and std::tuple, the format specification is interpreted as tuple format specification. For std::thread::id and std::stacktrace_entry, see thread id format specification and stacktrace entry format specification. For std::basic_stacktrace, no format specifier is allowed. (since C++23) For std::filesystem::path, see path format specification. (since C++26) For other formattable types, the format specification is determined by user-defined formatter specializations.
args...	-	arguments to be formatted
loc	-	std::locale used for locale-specific formatting

Return value

A string object holding the formatted result.

Exceptions

Throws std::bad_alloc on allocation failure. Also propagates exception thrown by any formatter.

Notes

It is not an error to provide more arguments than the format string requires:

std::format("{} {}!", "Hello", "world", "something"); // OK, produces "Hello world!"

As of P2216R3, it is an error if the format string is not a constant expression. std::vformat can be used in this case.

std::string f(std::string_view runtime_format_string)
{
    // return std::format(runtime_format_string, "foo", "bar"); // error
    return std::vformat(runtime_format_string, std::make_format_args("foo", "bar")); // ok
}

Example

Run this code

#include <format>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <string_view>
 
template<typename... Args>
std::string dyna_print(std::string_view rt_fmt_str, Args&&... args)
{
    return std::vformat(rt_fmt_str, std::make_format_args(args...));
}
 
int main()
{
    std::cout << std::format("Hello {}!\n", "world");
 
    std::string fmt;
    for (int i{}; i != 3; ++i)
    {
        fmt += "{} "; // constructs the formatting string
        std::cout << fmt << " : ";
        std::cout << dyna_print(fmt, "alpha", 'Z', 3.14, "unused");
        std::cout << '\n';
    }
}

Output:

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

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
P2216R3	C++20	throws std::format_error for invalid format string	invalid format string results in compile-time error
P2418R2	C++20	objects that are neither const-usable nor copyable (such as generator-like objects) are not formattable	allow formatting these objects
P2508R1	C++20	there's no user-visible name for this facility	the name basic_format_string is exposed

See also

format_to (C++20)	writes out formatted representation of its arguments through an output iterator (function template)
format_to_n (C++20)	writes out formatted representation of its arguments through an output iterator, not exceeding specified size (function template)