How do I write functions that accept unlimited arguments?

Question

I have only been able to find one way for functions to take a variable amount of arguments.
It's this way:

#include <iostream>
#include <stdarg.h>

using namespace std;

void Print(int argumentAmount, ... );

int main()
{
    Print(5,11,22,33,44,55);
}

void Print(int argumentAmount, ... ){

    va_list arguments; 
    va_start(arguments, argumentAmount);

    int parameter;
    for(int i = 0; i < argumentAmount; ++i ){
        parameter = va_arg(arguments, int);
        cout << parameter << endl;
    }

    va_end(arguments);
    return;
}

2 Problems:
1.) I have to specify how many arguments I'm sending in- not desirable
2.) I can't figure out how to modify it so it will output strings.

Would something like this be possible without having to overload the function multiple times:

void Output(/*not sure how this would look*/);

int main(){

    Output("hello","world");
    Output("this","is","a","test");
    Output("As","many","strings","as","you","want","may","be","passed","in");

    return 0;
}
void Output(/*not sure how this would look*/){

    //loop through each string passed in and output it
}

What about this:

void Capitalize(/*all passed by reference*/);

int main(){

    string s1 = "hello";
    string s2 = "world";

    string s3 = "this";
    string s4 = "is";
    string s5 = "a";
    string s6 = "test";

    string s7 = "as";
    string s8 = "many";
    string s9 = "strings";
    string s10 = "as";
    string s11 = "you";
    string s12 = "want";

    Capitalize(s1,s2);
    Capitalize(s3,s4,s5,s6);
    Capitalize(s7,s8,s9,s10,s11,s12);

    return 0;
}
void Capitalize(/*all passed by reference*/){

    //capitalize each string passed in

}

All I can think to do is:
-overload the function multiple times
-have the function accept some type of container instead

If this is NOT POSSIBLE, could someone explain why the compiler is not capable of accomplishing a task like this.

Answer 1

I think there is another possible solution: You could overload an operator '<<' like this:

class OutputObject {
public:
    // Some class functions/members

};
template<class T>
static operator << (OutputObject& out, T temp) {
    cout << temp;
}
static OutputObject Obj = OutputObject();

And then you can do the following in the main:

#include "OutputObject.hpp"
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main(void) {
    string str = "Hello World";
    Obj << 12 << str << 3.14f << "C++";
    Obj << 12;
    Obj << str;
    return(0);
};

If I did something wrong or there is a reason not to that please tell me, that was just my Idea of infinite parameters. I was not able to test it yet, but I think it should work.

Answer 2

With variadic templates in C++11, you can do something like this (see the result at ideone)

#include <string>
#include <iostream>

void Output() {
    std::cout<<std::endl;
}

template<typename First, typename ... Strings>
void Output(First arg, const Strings&... rest) {
    std::cout<<arg<<" ";
    Output(rest...);
}

int main() {
    Output("I","am","a","sentence");
    Output("Let's","try",1,"or",2,"digits");
    return 0;
}

Answer 3

Instead of passing in the count, you can have a special "trailing" argument (either nullptr or a pointer to some hard-coded "magic" string) and your variable-argument functions should stop extracting more arguments once they see the trailing one. That can ease your coding a bit.

You could also pass pointers (references) to containers, containing (or pointing at/referencing) your strings. Anything that can somehow link all your individual arguments will do (e.g. a vector).

Example (might be not very idiomatic, but should serve as an illustration):

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <cstdarg>
#include <cctype>
#include <vector>

using namespace std;

void AntiCapitalize(vector<string*>& v);
void Capitalize(string* s, ...);
void Print(string* s, ...);

int main()
{
    string s1 = "hello";
    string s2 = "world";

    string s3 = "this";
    string s4 = "is";
    string s5 = "a";
    string s6 = "test";

    string s7 = "as";
    string s8 = "many";
    string s9 = "strings";
    string s10 = "as";
    string s11 = "you";
    string s12 = "want";

    Capitalize(&s1, &s2, 0);
    Capitalize(&s3, &s4, &s5, &s6, 0);
    Capitalize(&s7, &s8, &s9, &s10, &s11, &s12, 0);

    Print(&s1, &s2, 0);
    Print(&s3, &s4, &s5, &s6, 0);
    Print(&s7, &s8, &s9, &s10, &s11, &s12, 0);

    vector<string*> v;
    v.push_back(&s1);
    v.push_back(&s2);
    v.push_back(&s3);
    v.push_back(&s4);
    v.push_back(&s5);
    v.push_back(&s6);
    v.push_back(&s7);
    v.push_back(&s8);
    v.push_back(&s9);
    v.push_back(&s10);
    v.push_back(&s11);
    v.push_back(&s12);

    AntiCapitalize(v);

    Print(&s1, &s2, 0);
    Print(&s3, &s4, &s5, &s6, 0);
    Print(&s7, &s8, &s9, &s10, &s11, &s12, 0);

    return 0;
}

void Capitalize(string* s, ...)
{
    va_list ap;

    va_start(ap, s);

    while (s)
    {
        string::size_type i = 0;

        while ((*s)[i] != '\0')
        {
            (*s)[i] = toupper((*s)[i]);
            i++;
        }

        s = va_arg(ap, string*);
    }

    va_end(ap);
}

void Print(string* s, ...)
{
    va_list ap;

    va_start(ap, s);

    while (s)
    {
        cout << *s << endl;
        s = va_arg(ap, string*);
    }

    va_end(ap);
}

void AntiCapitalize(vector<string*>& v)
{
    vector<string*>::iterator it;

    for (it = v.begin(); it != v.end(); it++)
    {
        string::size_type i = 0;

        while ((**it)[i] != '\0')
        {
            (**it)[i] = tolower((**it)[i]);
            i++;
        }
    }
}

Output:

HELLO
WORLD
THIS
IS
A
TEST
AS
MANY
STRINGS
AS
YOU
WANT
hello
world
this
is
a
test
as
many
strings
as
you
want

Answer 4

Quick and simple answer.

For C++ you need to specify either the number of arguments or a sentinel value to indicate the end of arguments.

Your first example is a good example of specing the count, you could also do:

void Print(const char *arg, ... ){
    va_list arguments;

    for (va_start(arguments, arg); arg != NULL; arg = va_arg(arguments, const char *)) {
        cout << arg << endl;
    }

    va_end(arguments);
}

Where your calling convention is:

Print("foo","bar",NULL);

If you want to take it to the next level, you can mix in a bit of the C Preprocessor and do:

#define mPrint(...) Print(__VA_ARGS__, NULL)

Now you can just say:

mPrint("fooo","bar");

And the macro will NULL terminate the call.