Re: sprintf and the trailing null

From	Bartc <bc@freeuk.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: sprintf and the trailing null
Date	2015-07-07 13:52 +0100
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<mnghvn$sdm$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References	(8 earlier) <13b53207-c41a-4ffd-a806-18c23de0e80c@googlegroups.com> <mng66k$ji0$1@dont-email.me> <c370230d-bb4b-4e4c-8cd0-5fdc38d03333@googlegroups.com> <mngc16$7j0$1@dont-email.me> <b7fe42ac-9419-48ea-a9fc-b65258b53e83@googlegroups.com>

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On 07/07/2015 13:08, Malcolm McLean wrote:
> On Tuesday, July 7, 2015 at 12:11:09 PM UTC+1, Bart wrote:
>> On 07/07/2015 10:51, Malcolm McLean wrote:
>>
>>> C has to set out memory in that layout.
>>> If we further define that a string array is a set of string concatenated in memory,
>>> then you've got problems with the nul (but only if the length goes above 0xFFFFFF).
>>
>> There are a hundred languages that C could interface to, each with its
>> own string handling schemes. It would unreasonable to expect C to
>> accommodate all of them.
>>
> C allows you to set up arbitrary binary structures in memory. As long as language X
> has an interface defined in terms of such structures, we can write C functions to call
> it.
> However it's handy to have support for creating a non-nul terminated character buffer.
> That's quite a common requirement for interfacing.

There is, in the form of char[] types and mem-functions.

That leaves a few examples such as sprintf, but it's not hard to work 
around the extra 0 byte that is generated, without a whole new set of 
functions.

And suppose the string format had a byte-count as the first character, 
or at the end? These requirements are too specialised.

(I sometimes use a string format that consists of a fixed field of N 
characters, is not zero-terminated, accommodates a string up to N 
characters, *and* it includes a count! But I don't expect a version of 
sprintf to directly write into such a buffer for me.)

-- 
Bartc

Thread

sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 06:16 -0700
  Re: sprintf and the trailing null John McCue <jmccue@jmcnet1.bstnma.east.verizon.net> - 2015-07-06 13:30 +0000
    Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 06:37 -0700
      Re: sprintf and the trailing null Reinhardt Behm <rbehm@hushmail.com> - 2015-07-06 21:58 +0800
        Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 07:12 -0700
          Re: sprintf and the trailing null Reinhardt Behm <rbehm@hushmail.com> - 2015-07-06 22:34 +0800
            Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 08:44 -0700
          Re: sprintf and the trailing null Bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-07-06 15:46 +0100
            Re: sprintf and the trailing null Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-07-06 08:06 -0700
              Re: sprintf and the trailing null Bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-07-06 17:42 +0100
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 09:48 -0700
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-07-06 18:07 +0100
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Martin Shobe <martin.shobe@yahoo.com> - 2015-07-06 12:40 -0500
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-07-06 10:46 -0700
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-07-06 18:58 +0100
          Re: sprintf and the trailing null Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-07-06 16:38 +0100
            Re: sprintf and the trailing null Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-07-06 23:44 +0100
              Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 15:48 -0700
              Re: sprintf and the trailing null Phil Carmody <pc+usenet@asdf.org> - 2015-07-08 20:09 +0300
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-08 10:11 -0700
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-07-08 19:01 +0100
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-07-09 09:02 -0700
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2015-07-09 17:07 +0100
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Phil Carmody <pc+usenet@asdf.org> - 2015-07-10 17:06 +0300
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2015-07-09 17:42 +0000
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Phil Carmody <pc+usenet@asdf.org> - 2015-07-10 13:33 +0300
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-07-10 12:09 +0100
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-07-10 04:51 -0700
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-07-10 17:24 +0100
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-07-10 08:33 -0700
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2015-07-11 04:58 -0700
      Re: sprintf and the trailing null jt@toerring.de (Jens Thoms Toerring) - 2015-07-06 14:15 +0000
        Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 07:20 -0700
          Re: sprintf and the trailing null raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-07-06 19:54 +0000
            Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 13:31 -0700
              Re: sprintf and the trailing null Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2015-07-06 21:52 +0100
              Re: sprintf and the trailing null raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-07-06 22:52 +0000
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-07-07 01:04 +0100
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-07-06 19:13 -0700
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Reinhardt Behm <rbehm@hushmail.com> - 2015-07-07 12:45 +0800
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Rosario19 <Ros@invalid.invalid> - 2015-07-07 10:15 +0200
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-07-07 10:31 +0100
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-07-07 02:51 -0700
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-07-07 12:10 +0100
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-07-07 05:08 -0700
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-07-07 13:52 +0100
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Phil Carmody <pc+usenet@asdf.org> - 2015-07-08 20:20 +0300
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-07-08 18:51 +0100
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-07-09 10:27 +0000
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2015-07-10 19:03 -0700
              Re: sprintf and the trailing null gordonb.7tw58@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) - 2015-07-07 15:40 -0500
                Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-07 15:14 -0700
        Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 07:27 -0700
          Re: sprintf and the trailing null jt@toerring.de (Jens Thoms Toerring) - 2015-07-06 16:46 +0000
        Re: sprintf and the trailing null Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-07-06 07:56 -0700
  Re: sprintf and the trailing null Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2015-07-06 09:32 -0600
  Re: sprintf and the trailing null Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-07-06 08:37 -0700
    Re: sprintf and the trailing null Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-07-06 08:54 -0700
  Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 08:53 -0700
    Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 09:00 -0700
    Re: sprintf and the trailing null Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-07-06 17:14 +0100
      Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 09:24 -0700
        Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 09:31 -0700
  Re: sprintf and the trailing null Sjouke Burry <burrynulnulfour@ppllaanneett.nnll> - 2015-07-07 01:43 +0200
    Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 17:09 -0700
      Re: sprintf and the trailing null Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2015-07-06 21:08 -0600
        Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-06 21:29 -0700
        Re: sprintf and the trailing null Phil Carmody <pc+usenet@asdf.org> - 2015-07-08 20:24 +0300
          Re: sprintf and the trailing null "Rick C. Hodgin" <rick.c.hodgin@gmail.com> - 2015-07-08 10:44 -0700
  Re: sprintf and the trailing null Les Cargill <lcargill99@comcast.com> - 2015-07-07 21:48 -0500

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