Question

I am pretty new to C++, and I am having an error with the CL_String8 function in ClanLib.

When I try to compile:

CL_String now() {
    CL_DateTime now = CL_DateTime::get_current_local_time();
    return CL_String8(now.get_hour()) + " " + CL_String8(now.get_minutes()) + " " + CL_String8(now.get_seconds());
}

I get this error (repeated 3 times):

src/utils.cpp: In function ‘CL_String now()’:
src/utils.cpp:15:34: error: call of overloaded ‘CL_String8(unsigned char)’ is ambiguous
src/utils.cpp:15:34: note: candidates are:
/usr/include/ClanLib-2.3/ClanLib/Core/Text/string8.h:74:2: note: CL_String8::CL_String8(const wchar_t*) <near match>
/usr/include/ClanLib-2.3/ClanLib/Core/Text/string8.h:74:2: note:   no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘unsigned char’ to ‘const wchar_t*’
/usr/include/ClanLib-2.3/ClanLib/Core/Text/string8.h:63:2: note: CL_String8::CL_String8(const char*) <near match>
/usr/include/ClanLib-2.3/ClanLib/Core/Text/string8.h:63:2: note:   no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘unsigned char’ to ‘const char*’
/usr/include/ClanLib-2.3/ClanLib/Core/Text/string8.h:55:2: note: CL_String8::CL_String8(const CL_String8&) <near match>
/usr/include/ClanLib-2.3/ClanLib/Core/Text/string8.h:55:2: note:   no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘unsigned char’ to ‘const CL_String8&’
/usr/include/ClanLib-2.3/ClanLib/Core/Text/string8.h:50:2: note: CL_String8::CL_String8(const string&) <near match>
/usr/include/ClanLib-2.3/ClanLib/Core/Text/string8.h:50:2: note:   no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘unsigned char’ to ‘const string& {aka const std::basic_string<char>&}’

How can I define which one of the functions I want to use?

Answer 1

ClanLib has a formatting function you can use to avoid low-level C formatting code:

CL_DateTime now = CL_DateTime::get_current_local_time();
return cl_format("%1 %2 %3", now.get_hour(), now.get_minutes(), now.get_seconds());

cl_format accepts most basic types automatically.

Secondly, CL_DateTime has a to_long_time_string() that returns the time as hh:mm:ss, so you could use that unless you need your specific formatting:

return now.to_long_time_string();

Third, there is no need to use CL_String8 directly. Depending on unicode compilation settings CL_String will either use CL_String8 or CL_String16 internally. CL_String8 is not something you need to use explicitly in your code.