If you are on a system that has asprintf(3), you can easily wrap it:
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdarg>
#include <cstdio>
std::string format(const char *fmt, ...) __attribute__ ((format (printf, 1, 2)));
std::string format(const char *fmt, ...)
{
std::string result;
va_list ap;
va_start(ap, fmt);
char *tmp = 0;
int res = vasprintf(&tmp, fmt, ap);
va_end(ap);
if (res != -1) {
result = tmp;
free(tmp);
} else {
// The vasprintf call failed, either do nothing and
// fall through (will return empty string) or
// throw an exception, if your code uses those
}
return result;
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
std::string username = "you";
std::cout << format("Hello %s! %d", username.c_str(), 123) << std::endl;
return 0;
}