[Boost-users] Boost.Format to a string

Subject: [Boost-users] Boost.Format to a string
From: John M. Dlugosz (mpbecey7gu_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-06-26 19:25:04

I brought this up a while back, and I ran into it again yesterday.  Using boost::format to 
produce a string, as opposed to sending it directly to cout, is awkward.

     boost::format ("blah blah blah") % exp1 % exp2 %exp3

is fine in and of itself.  But then what?  You need to wrap the whole thing in extra 
parens to use str:

     std::string s= (boost::format ("blah blah blah") % exp1 % exp2 %exp3).str();

WHY NOT allow implicit conversion to string?

Or, some other mechanism that doesn't complicate the expression and bury the interesting part?

—John