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      1 .. highlightlang:: c
      2 
      3 .. _string-conversion:
      4 
      5 String conversion and formatting
      6 ================================
      7 
      8 Functions for number conversion and formatted string output.
      9 
     10 
     11 .. c:function:: int PyOS_snprintf(char *str, size_t size,  const char *format, ...)
     12 
     13    Output not more than *size* bytes to *str* according to the format string
     14    *format* and the extra arguments. See the Unix man page :manpage:`snprintf(2)`.
     15 
     16 
     17 .. c:function:: int PyOS_vsnprintf(char *str, size_t size, const char *format, va_list va)
     18 
     19    Output not more than *size* bytes to *str* according to the format string
     20    *format* and the variable argument list *va*. Unix man page
     21    :manpage:`vsnprintf(2)`.
     22 
     23 :c:func:`PyOS_snprintf` and :c:func:`PyOS_vsnprintf` wrap the Standard C library
     24 functions :c:func:`snprintf` and :c:func:`vsnprintf`. Their purpose is to
     25 guarantee consistent behavior in corner cases, which the Standard C functions do
     26 not.
     27 
     28 The wrappers ensure that *str*[*size*-1] is always ``'\0'`` upon return. They
     29 never write more than *size* bytes (including the trailing ``'\0'``) into str.
     30 Both functions require that ``str != NULL``, ``size > 0`` and ``format !=
     31 NULL``.
     32 
     33 If the platform doesn't have :c:func:`vsnprintf` and the buffer size needed to
     34 avoid truncation exceeds *size* by more than 512 bytes, Python aborts with a
     35 *Py_FatalError*.
     36 
     37 The return value (*rv*) for these functions should be interpreted as follows:
     38 
     39 * When ``0 <= rv < size``, the output conversion was successful and *rv*
     40   characters were written to *str* (excluding the trailing ``'\0'`` byte at
     41   *str*[*rv*]).
     42 
     43 * When ``rv >= size``, the output conversion was truncated and a buffer with
     44   ``rv + 1`` bytes would have been needed to succeed. *str*[*size*-1] is ``'\0'``
     45   in this case.
     46 
     47 * When ``rv < 0``, "something bad happened." *str*[*size*-1] is ``'\0'`` in
     48   this case too, but the rest of *str* is undefined. The exact cause of the error
     49   depends on the underlying platform.
     50 
     51 The following functions provide locale-independent string to number conversions.
     52 
     53 
     54 .. c:function:: double PyOS_string_to_double(const char *s, char **endptr, PyObject *overflow_exception)
     55 
     56    Convert a string ``s`` to a :c:type:`double`, raising a Python
     57    exception on failure.  The set of accepted strings corresponds to
     58    the set of strings accepted by Python's :func:`float` constructor,
     59    except that ``s`` must not have leading or trailing whitespace.
     60    The conversion is independent of the current locale.
     61 
     62    If ``endptr`` is ``NULL``, convert the whole string.  Raise
     63    ValueError and return ``-1.0`` if the string is not a valid
     64    representation of a floating-point number.
     65 
     66    If endptr is not ``NULL``, convert as much of the string as
     67    possible and set ``*endptr`` to point to the first unconverted
     68    character.  If no initial segment of the string is the valid
     69    representation of a floating-point number, set ``*endptr`` to point
     70    to the beginning of the string, raise ValueError, and return
     71    ``-1.0``.
     72 
     73    If ``s`` represents a value that is too large to store in a float
     74    (for example, ``"1e500"`` is such a string on many platforms) then
     75    if ``overflow_exception`` is ``NULL`` return ``Py_HUGE_VAL`` (with
     76    an appropriate sign) and don't set any exception.  Otherwise,
     77    ``overflow_exception`` must point to a Python exception object;
     78    raise that exception and return ``-1.0``.  In both cases, set
     79    ``*endptr`` to point to the first character after the converted value.
     80 
     81    If any other error occurs during the conversion (for example an
     82    out-of-memory error), set the appropriate Python exception and
     83    return ``-1.0``.
     84 
     85    .. versionadded:: 3.1
     86 
     87 
     88 .. c:function:: char* PyOS_double_to_string(double val, char format_code, int precision, int flags, int *ptype)
     89 
     90    Convert a :c:type:`double` *val* to a string using supplied
     91    *format_code*, *precision*, and *flags*.
     92 
     93    *format_code* must be one of ``'e'``, ``'E'``, ``'f'``, ``'F'``,
     94    ``'g'``, ``'G'`` or ``'r'``.  For ``'r'``, the supplied *precision*
     95    must be 0 and is ignored.  The ``'r'`` format code specifies the
     96    standard :func:`repr` format.
     97 
     98    *flags* can be zero or more of the values *Py_DTSF_SIGN*,
     99    *Py_DTSF_ADD_DOT_0*, or *Py_DTSF_ALT*, or-ed together:
    100 
    101    * *Py_DTSF_SIGN* means to always precede the returned string with a sign
    102      character, even if *val* is non-negative.
    103 
    104    * *Py_DTSF_ADD_DOT_0* means to ensure that the returned string will not look
    105      like an integer.
    106 
    107    * *Py_DTSF_ALT* means to apply "alternate" formatting rules.  See the
    108      documentation for the :c:func:`PyOS_snprintf` ``'#'`` specifier for
    109      details.
    110 
    111    If *ptype* is non-NULL, then the value it points to will be set to one of
    112    *Py_DTST_FINITE*, *Py_DTST_INFINITE*, or *Py_DTST_NAN*, signifying that
    113    *val* is a finite number, an infinite number, or not a number, respectively.
    114 
    115    The return value is a pointer to *buffer* with the converted string or
    116    *NULL* if the conversion failed. The caller is responsible for freeing the
    117    returned string by calling :c:func:`PyMem_Free`.
    118 
    119    .. versionadded:: 3.1
    120 
    121 
    122 .. c:function:: int PyOS_stricmp(const char *s1, const char *s2)
    123 
    124    Case insensitive comparison of strings. The function works almost
    125    identically to :c:func:`strcmp` except that it ignores the case.
    126 
    127 
    128 .. c:function:: int PyOS_strnicmp(const char *s1, const char *s2, Py_ssize_t  size)
    129 
    130    Case insensitive comparison of strings. The function works almost
    131    identically to :c:func:`strncmp` except that it ignores the case.
    132