Question

Problem -> To return fixed length string to std::string*.
Target machine -> Fedora 11 .

I have to derive a function which accepts integer value and return fixed lenght string to a string pointer;
for example -> int value are in range of 0 to -127

so for int value 0 -> it shoud display 000
for value -9 -> it should return -009
for value say -50 -> it should return -050
for value say -110 -> it should return -110

so in short , lenght should be same in all cases.

What I have done : I have defined the function according to the requirement which has shown below.

Where I need help: I have derived a function but I am not sure if this is correct approach. When I test it on standalone system on windows side , the exe stopped working after sometimes but when I include this function with the overall project on Linux machine , it works flawlessly.

    /* function(s)to implement fixed Length Rssi */
 std::string convertString( const int numberRssi, std::string addedPrecison="" )
 {
     const std::string         delimiter   =   "-";
                stringstream   ss;

     ss  << numberRssi ;
     std::string tempString = ss.str();
     std::string::size_type found = tempString.find( delimiter );
     if( found == std::string::npos )// not found
     {
         tempString = "000";
     }
     else
     {
         tempString = tempString.substr( found+1 );
         tempString = "-" +addedPrecison+tempString ;
     }
     return  tempString;

 }

 std::string stringFixedLenght( const int number )
 {
     std::string str;
     if( (number <= 0) && (number >= -9) )
       {
           str = convertString( number, "00");
       }
       else if( (number <= -10) && (number >= -99) )
       {
           str = convertString( number, "0");
       }
       else
       {
           str= convertString(number, "");
       }
     return str;
 }
// somewhere in the project calling the function
ErrorCode A::GetNowString( std::string macAddress, std::string *pString )
{
    ErrorCode result = ok;
    int lvalue;
    //some more code like iopening file and reading file 
    //..bla
    // ..bla     
    // already got the value in lvalue ;

    if( result == ok )
    {
         *pString = stringFixedLenght( lValue );
    }

    // some more code

    return result;

}

Answer 1

I have nothing against the versions that use streams, but you can do it all yourself more simply than your code:

std::string fixedLength(int value, int digits = 3) {
    unsigned int uvalue = value;
    if (value < 0) {
        uvalue = -uvalue;
    }
    std::string result;
    while (digits-- > 0) {
        result += ('0' + uvalue % 10);
        uvalue /= 10;
    }
    if (value < 0) {
        result += '-';
    }
    std::reverse(result.begin(), result.end());
    return result;
}