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Author Topic: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI  (Read 13648 times)

correa.elias

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ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« on: October 11, 2018, 04:39:16 pm »
Automatically converts any value to a string representation, including records and arrays, in the same spirit of 'print' functions found in scripting languages. Its usefull for logging and debugging.

https://github.com/correaelias/TypeUtils
« Last Edit: October 11, 2018, 05:41:53 pm by correa.elias »

avra

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #1 on: October 11, 2018, 07:14:22 pm »
Thank you, very useful !    :)
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Trenatos

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #2 on: October 11, 2018, 07:25:02 pm »
I haven't tried it out, but if it works well I'd love to see it included with FPC core.

Debuggers aren't always useable (I'm looking at you, OSX) and the ability to just dump some data to a terminal/textfield is often all that's needed.

correa.elias

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2018, 07:35:31 pm »
Thanks! Im planning better examples to demonstrate the power of this function.

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]
  1. program Test;
  2.  
  3. uses TypeUtils, SysUtils;
  4.  
  5. type
  6.   TEmployee = record
  7.     FName: ShortString;
  8.     FId: LongInt;
  9.     FSalary: Currency;
  10.   end;
  11.  
  12. var
  13.   Employees: array of TEmployee;
  14.   I: LongInt;
  15. begin
  16.   SetLength(Employees, 10);
  17.  
  18.   for I := 0 to High(Employees) do
  19.   begin
  20.     with Employees[I] do
  21.     begin
  22.       FName := 'John Doe ' + I.ToString;
  23.       FId := I;
  24.       FSalary := 2000.25 * I;
  25.     end;
  26.   end;
  27.  
  28.   WriteLn(ToStr(Employees, TypeInfo(Employees)));
  29. end.
  30.  

outputs:
[('John Doe 0', 0, 0), ('John Doe 1', 1, 2000.25), ('John Doe 2', 2, 4000.5), ('John Doe 3', 3, 6000.75), ('John Doe 4', 4, 8001), ('John Doe 5', 5, 10001.25), ('John Doe 6', 6, 12001.5), ('John Doe 7', 7, 14001.75), ('John Doe 8', 8, 16002), ('John Doe 9', 9, 18002.25)]

zeljko

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2018, 09:53:16 pm »
Nice job :)

Thaddy

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #5 on: October 12, 2018, 08:30:20 am »
@correa.elias

I have reviewed the code and it looks very nice.
I have a couple of remarks, though:

1. ManagedFldCount is deprecated (at least in 3.2.0 and trunk).
    You can replace it with TotalFieldCount. (The compiler actually gives two suggestions. I chose this one)
2. I prefer {$mode Delphi}{$coperators on} over mode objfpc (see below code why!)
3. You can get rid of the typeinfo parameter and introduce type safety like so:
Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]
  1. {$mode delphi}{$coperators on}
  2.  
  3. function ToStr(var AX; ATypeInfo: PTypeInfo): AnsiString;overload;
  4. function Tostr<T>(var Value:T):AnsiString;overload;  // <----
  5.  
  6. implementation
  7.  
  8. function Tostr<T>(var Value:T):AnsiString;overload;
  9. begin
  10.   Result :=Tostr(value,typeinfo(t));
  11. end;

My initial tests show no regressions with these minor changes. 

(objfpc mode generics look silly and won't allow this, delphi mode does allow it)
(To me objfpc mode for generics are deprecated)



« Last Edit: October 12, 2018, 09:04:50 am by Thaddy »
Specialize a type, not a var.

andresayang

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #6 on: October 12, 2018, 09:48:34 am »
Thanks
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avra

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #7 on: October 12, 2018, 10:19:06 am »
I haven't tried it out, but if it works well I'd love to see it included with FPC core.
+1  :)

3. You can get rid of the typeinfo parameter and introduce type safety
Very nice, thanks! I would really appreciate this change.   8)
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wp

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #8 on: October 12, 2018, 11:20:32 am »
I haven't tried it out, but if it works well I'd love to see it included with FPC core.
I don't want to disencourage you, but in my eyes, it is not flexible enough for inclusion in fcl: What if I want floats in scientific notation, integers in hex, a different field separator?

Thaddy

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #9 on: October 12, 2018, 11:59:23 am »
I don't want to disencourage you, but in my eyes, it is not flexible enough for inclusion in fcl: What if I want floats in scientific notation, integers in hex, a different field separator?

His stated purpose (in his other thread) was something similar to what Python offers: a one stop shop to print any content in a readable way.
I encouraged him to write it  :P O:-) Which he did!
That means inherently taking over some limitations.
Within that context he did a pretty good job! Within that context it is also valuable, not to the FCL but to the rtl: in sysutils.
Specialize a type, not a var.

marcov

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #10 on: October 12, 2018, 12:05:58 pm »
I haven't tried it out, but if it works well I'd love to see it included with FPC core.
I don't want to disencourage you, but in my eyes, it is not flexible enough for inclusion in fcl: What if I want floats in scientific notation, integers in hex, a different field separator?

That requires custom attributes.  Then you can annotate that you want a color to be printed in hex etc, and the dump routine can query it.

Having both a fancy and less fancy is nice though, the fancier, the slower probably, and sometimes you just want to dump for debugging/logging purposes. This is fairly universal.

If you use this in generation of a wire protocol or file format, you want more control, hence the fancy version.

avra

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #11 on: October 12, 2018, 12:12:38 pm »
I haven't tried it out, but if it works well I'd love to see it included with FPC core.
I don't want to disencourage you, but in my eyes, it is not flexible enough for inclusion in fcl: What if I want floats in scientific notation, integers in hex, a different field separator?
One of the ways to enable customization for users is like we already have with DefaultFormatSettings record which is of TFormatSettings type. Anyone wanting customization could populate DefaultToStrSettings record with his own likings and everyone is happy. We could even allow optional parameter for settings record parameter. For scientific notation of floats, I think that ToStr should already use DefaultFormatSettings from FPC.

I would still prefer Str() function name instead of ToStr() - and yes, I am aware there is already a Str() procedure.
« Last Edit: October 12, 2018, 12:16:57 pm by avra »
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Thaddy

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2018, 12:20:06 pm »
The function is actually similar to one of the many ToJson implementations. That has also restrictions.
Specialize a type, not a var.

AlexTP

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #13 on: October 12, 2018, 12:44:38 pm »

mr-highball

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Re: ToStr - Convert any value to String using RTTI
« Reply #14 on: October 12, 2018, 05:29:28 pm »
@correa.elias

I have reviewed the code and it looks very nice.
I have a couple of remarks, though:

1. ManagedFldCount is deprecated (at least in 3.2.0 and trunk).
    You can replace it with TotalFieldCount. (The compiler actually gives two suggestions. I chose this one)
2. I prefer {$mode Delphi}{$coperators on} over mode objfpc (see below code why!)
3. You can get rid of the typeinfo parameter and introduce type safety like so:
Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]
  1. {$mode delphi}{$coperators on}
  2.  
  3. function ToStr(var AX; ATypeInfo: PTypeInfo): AnsiString;overload;
  4. function Tostr<T>(var Value:T):AnsiString;overload;  // <----
  5.  
  6. implementation
  7.  
  8. function Tostr<T>(var Value:T):AnsiString;overload;
  9. begin
  10.   Result :=Tostr(value,typeinfo(t));
  11. end;

My initial tests show no regressions with these minor changes. 

(objfpc mode generics look silly and won't allow this, delphi mode does allow it)
(To me objfpc mode for generics are deprecated)

thanks this is nice, also I would second the templated version

 

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