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Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 21:00:06 -0400
To: Matt W <php_lists@realplain.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [v][sf]printf additions (#, E, g, G)
From: gwynne@skytag.com (Gwynne)

On Jul 23, 2006, at 5:38 AM, Matt W wrote:
>> While we're on the subject, one of my favorite personal patches to
>> PHP is one that adds the %n specifier. The parameter to %n is a
>> reference which recieves the total length of the string with all
>> replacements so far. %n itself is replaced by nothing at all. You
>> could do this with $n = strlen( $s = sprintf( blah blah blah ) ) +
>> strlen( $s .= sprintf( the rest of the blah ) );, but it's a very
>> nice shortcut if you need the replaced length in the middle of the
>> conversion or for a situation like this (and the above doesn't work
>> too well if you have positional params!):
>>
>> printf( "Some processing message with %s replacements...%n",  
>> 'some', &
>> $n );
>> // do some stuff here
>> print str_repeat( ' ', $n ) . "\rSome status text here that doesn't
>> worry about whether the replaced text was longer.";
>>
>> Here's the printf(3) manpage description for %n (MacOS X system, BSD
>> manpage):
>>
>>       n       The number of characters written so far is stored into
>> the inte-
>>               ger indicated by the int * (or variant) pointer
>> argument.  No
>>               argument is converted.
>>
>> Any chance of getting this into PHP? I can provide a patch.
> I had thought about adding %n too, but didn't know what the  
> reaction would
> be or if it'd be used.  (And the length thing would have to be changed
> [later] for Unicode length or such, I assume?)  Also, wasn't sure  
> about the
> internals code for the reference and writing to it, etc. :-)

I'm completely unversed in the current Unicode stuff; I can only  
provide a patch against 5.2. Someone who knows the Unicode crud would  
have to update it for HEAD, and given the recent loud argument about  
HEAD vs branch commits, I don't know how well a 5.2-only patch would  
go over. Any advice on that point?

-- Gwynne, Daughter of the Code
"This whole world is an asylum for the incurable."