macOS convert an array of ints - into a string with semicolon in between.

celia · Jun 24, 2007

Hi,

I want to convert an array of ints - into one long string with ':' (semicolon) between each int.

How to go about it?

Thanks.

janey · Jun 24, 2007

which language?

dejo · Jun 24, 2007

celia said:
...into one long string with ':' (semicolon) between each int...

And by the way, ':' is a colon. ';' is a semicolon.

janey · Jun 24, 2007

on second thought, just loop through it.

edit: depending on the language, there might be a method along the lines of this: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/57a79xd0.aspx - may be nicer and cleaner

celia · Jun 25, 2007

Language

It's in C.

Thanks dejo for correcting. It's colon.

GothicChess.Com · Jun 25, 2007

Here's a quick-n-dirty way to do it in C (I didn't compile it...)

Code:

void convert_ints_to_string(void)
{
	#define k_maximum_characters_for_demo 160
	const int k_base_10 = 10;
	unsigned short loop;
	unsigned short length_of_string = 0;
	int sample_array[7];
	char your_output_as_a_C_string[k_maximum_characters_for_demo];
	char intermediate_string[20];
	
	sample_array[0] = 42;
	sample_array[1] = -209;
	sample_array[2] = 3287;
	sample_array[3] = 0;
	sample_array[4] = 291;
	sample_array[5] = -2323;
	sample_array[6] = -2323;
	
	for(loop = 1; loop <= 7; loop++)
	{
		/**********************************************************************************/
		/* take the element in the array, an int, and turn it into as ASCII string.        */
		/* itoa = INT to ASCII, 3 parameters, the int, the string receptacle, and the base */
		/**********************************************************************************/
		
		itoa(sample_array[loop-1], intermediate_string, k_base_10);
		
		length_of_string += strlen(intermediate_string);
		
		/*****************************************************************************/
		/* reserved 160 characters in the string array, make sure it is not exceeded */
		/*****************************************************************************/
		if(length_of_string > k_maximum_characters_for_demo) exit(0);
		
		your_output_as_a_C_string = strcat(your_output_as_a_C_string , intermediate_string, ":" );
		
		/******************************************************/
		/* add one to our count since we just added the colon */
		/******************************************************/
		length_of_string++;
		if(length_of_string > k_maximum_characters_for_demo) exit(0);
	}
	
	/********************************************************************************/
	/* all c strings are terminated with a NULL character, signified by backslash 0 */
	/********************************************************************************/
	your_output_as_a_C_string = strcat(your_output_as_a_C_string, '\0' );
	
}

HiRez · Jun 25, 2007

This is why I love Python:

Code:

joined_string = ":".join(sample_array)

Done. No loops. No explicit temporary strings. No counter variables. No range checks.

I know, not useful to the discussion, but still.

GothicChess.Com · Jun 25, 2007

Just as a side note...

I can't remember in C if you need to put a single character in single quotes when concatenating, like ':' instead of double quotes like I showed, ":"...

...I just thought of this because the \0 at the end of the C string must be surrounded by the single quotes, like '\0'

celia · Jun 25, 2007

Final compiled code

HTML:

#define k_maximum_characters_for_demo 10


main()
{

	const int k_base_10 = 10;
	unsigned short loop;
	unsigned short length_of_string = 0;
	int sample_array[3] = {0x21,0x3a,0x45};
	char your_output_as_a_C_string[k_maximum_characters_for_demo] =" ";
	char intermediate_string[2];
	
	
	for(loop = 0; loop < 3; loop++)
	{
		/**********************************************************************************/
		/* take the element in the array, an int, and turn it into as hex string.        */
				/**********************************************************************************/
		
		sprintf( intermediate_string, "%x", sample_array[loop] );

		length_of_string += strlen(intermediate_string);
		
		/*****************************************************************************/
		/* reserved 160 characters in the string array, make sure it is not exceeded */
		/*****************************************************************************/
		if(length_of_string > k_maximum_characters_for_demo) exit(0);

		 strcat(intermediate_string,":");
		 strcat(your_output_as_a_C_string,intermediate_string);

		/******************************************************/
		/* add one to our count since we just added the colon */
		/******************************************************/
		length_of_string++;
		if(length_of_string > k_maximum_characters_for_demo) exit(0);
	}
	/********************************************************************************/
	/* all c strings are terminated with a NULL character, signified by backslash 0 */
	/********************************************************************************/
	printf("%s", strcat(your_output_as_a_C_string, "\0" ));
}

sprintf can be helpful if the array value has to be retained (only type has to change).

Thanks everyone.

garethlewis2 · Jun 25, 2007

That's going to be slow with an array of a few thousand elements in it. Exponentially slow.

lazydog · Jun 25, 2007

Hi

Work out how big the final string is going to be 1st:-

Code:

char temp[ 32 ] ;
int size = 0 ;
	
for ( int i = 0 ; i < ARRAY_SIZE ; ++ i )
{
   sprintf( temp, "%d", test_array[ i ] ) ;
   size += strlen( temp ) + 1 ;	// +1 is for the colon
}

then allocate the memory for it:-

Code:

char* str = (char *) malloc( size ) ; // Last ':' will be overwritten with \0

Then create the string:-

Code:

int offset = 0 ;
for ( int i = 0 ; i < TEST_SIZE - 1 ; ++ i )
{
   sprintf( temp, "%d:", test_array[ i ] ) ;
   strcpy( str + offset, temp ) ;
   offset += strlen( temp ) ;
}

//
// Last number doesn't need a colon.
//
sprintf( temp, "%d", test_array[ TEST_SIZE - 1 ] ) ;
strcpy( str + offset, temp ) ;

That should do it!

b e n

GothicChess.Com · Jun 25, 2007

lazydog said:
Hi

Work out how big the final string is going to be 1st:-

...

then allocate the memory for it

...

Then create the string

...

That should do it!

b e n

I didn't want to inundate her on the first iteration with a high performance demo. It seemed the question was more centered on loop-handling, arrays, and num-to-string conversions. I could have spawned a high-performance version of the thing in only 5 lines of code that would be nearly impossible to decipher. For example, look at this code, which is an actual fully-functional OS if you have a boot loader

Code:

#define G(n) int n(int t, int q, int d)
#define X(p,t,s) (p>=t&&p<(t+s)&&(p-(t)&1023)<(s&1023))
#define U(m) *((signed char *)(m))
#define F if(!--q){
#define I(s) (int)main-(int)s
#define P(s,c,k) for(h=0; h>>14==0; h+=129)Y(16*c+h/1024+Y(V+36))&128>>(h&7)?U(s+(h&15367))=k:k

G (B)
{
  Z;
  F D = E (Y (V), C = E (Y (V), Y (t + 4) + 3, 4, 0), 2, 0);
  Y (t + 12) = Y (t + 20) = i;
  Y (t + 24) = 1;
  Y (t + 28) = t;
  Y (t + 16) = 442890;
  Y (t + 28) = d = E (Y (V), s = D * 8 + 1664, 1, 0);
  for (p = 0; j < s; j++, p++)
    U (d + j) = i == D | j < p ? p--, 0 : (n = U (C + 512 + i++)) < ' ' ? p |=
      n * 56 - 497, 0 : n;
}

n = Y (Y (t + 4)) & 1;
F
U (Y (t + 28) + 1536) |=
62 & -n;
M
U (d + D) =
X (D, Y (t + 12) + 26628, 412162) ? X (D, Y (t + 12) + 27653,
				       410112) ? 31 : 0 : U (d + D);
for (; j < 12800; j += 8)
  P (d + 27653 + Y (t + 12) + ' ' * (j & ~511) + j % 512,
     U (Y (t + 28) + j / 8 + 64 * Y (t + 20)), 0);
}

F if (n)
  {
    D = Y (t + 28);
    if (d - 10)
      U (++Y (t + 24) + D + 1535) = d;
    else
      {
	for (i = D; i < D + 1600; i++)
	  U (i) = U (i + 64);
	Y (t + 24) = 1;
	E (Y (V), i - 127, 3, 0);
      }
  }
else
  Y (t + 20) += ((d >> 4) ^ (d >> 5)) - 3;
}
}

G (_);
G (o);
G (main)
{
  Z, k = K;
  if (!t)
    {
      Y (V) = V + 208 - (I (_));
      L (209, 223) L (168, 0) L (212, 244) _((int) &s, 3, 0);
      for (; 1;)
	R n = Y (V - 12);
      if (C & ' ')
	{
	  k++;
	  k %= 3;
	  if (k < 2)
	    {
	      Y (j) -= p;
	      Y (j) += p += U (&D) * (1 - k * 1025);
	      if (k)
		goto y;
	    }
	  else
	    {
	      for (C = V - 20;
		   !i && D & 1 && n
		   && (X (p, Y (n + 12), Y (n + 16)) ? j = n + 12, Y (C + 8) =
		       Y (n + 8), Y (n + 8) = Y (V - 12), Y (V - 12) =
		       n, 0 : n); C = n, n = Y (n + 8));
	      i = D & 1;
	      j &= -i;
	    }
	}
      else if (128 & ~D)
	{
	  E (Y (n), n, 3, U (V + D % 64 + 131) ^ 32);
	  n = Y (V - 12);
	y:C = 1 << 24;
	  M U (C + D) = 125;
	  o (n, 0, C);
	  P (C + p - 8196, 88, 0);
	  M U (Y (0x11028) + D) = U (C + D);
	}
    }
}

for (D = 720; D > -3888; D--)
  putchar (D >
	   0 ?
	   "  )!\320\234\360\256\370\256 0\230F           .,mnbvcxz    ;lkjhgfdsa \n][poiuytrewq  =-0987654321   \357\262   \337\337 \357\272   \337\337         ( )\"\343\312F\320!/ !\230 26!/\16 K>!/\16\332 \4\16\251\0160\355&\2271\20\2300\355`x{0\355\347\2560 \237qpa%\231o!\230 \337\337\337     ,               )\"K\240   \343\316qrpxzy\0 sRDh\16\313\212u\343\314qrzy    !0( "
	   [D] ^ 32 : Y (I (D)));
return 0;
}

G (o)
{
  Z;
  if (t)
    {
      C = Y (t + 12);
      j = Y (t + 16);
      o (Y (t + 8), 0, d);
      M U (d + D) =
	X (D, C, j) ? X (D, C + 1025, j - 2050) ? X (D, C + 2050,
						     j - 3075) ? X (D,
								    C + 2050,
								    j -
								    4100) ?
	X (D, C + 4100,
	   ((j & 1023) + 18424)) ? 176 : 24 : 20 : 28 : 0 : U (d + D);
      for (n = Y (t + 4); U (i + n); i++)
	P (d + Y (t + 12) + 5126 + i * 8, U (n + i), 31);
      E (Y (t), t, 2, d);
    }
}

G (_)
{
  Z = Y (V + 24);
  F Y (V - 16) += t;
  D = Y (V - 16) - t;
}

F for (i = 124; i < 135; i++)
  D = D << 3 | Y (t + i) & 7;
}

if (q > 0)
  {
    for (; n = U (D + i); i++)
      if (n - U (t + i))
	{
	  D += _(D, 2, 0) + 1023 & ~511;
	  i = ~0;
	}
    F if (Y (D))
      {
	n = _(164, 1, 0);
	Y (n + 8) = Y (V - 12);
	Y (V - 12) = n;
	Y (n + 4) = i = n + 64;
	for (; j < 96; j++)
	  Y (i + j) = Y (t + j);
	i = D + 512;
	j = i + Y (i + 32);
	for (; Y (j + 12) != Y (i + 24); j += 40);
	E (Y (n) = Y (j + 16) + i, n, 1, 0);
      }
  }
}

return D;
}

It will compile and run with no errors, and it actually does something!

lazydog · Jun 26, 2007

GothicChess.Com said:

Code:

#define G(n) int n(int t, int q, int d)
#define X(p,t,s) (p>=t&&p<(t+s)&&(p-(t)&1023)<(s&1023))
#define U(m) *((signed char *)(m))
#define F if(!--q){
#define I(s) (int)main-(int)s
#define P(s,c,k) for(h=0; h>>14==0; h+=129)Y(16*c+h/1024+Y(V+36))&128>>(h&7)?U(s+(h&15367))=k:k

G (B)
{
  Z;

etc etc

Are you saying you're the author of this?

b e n

toddburch · Jun 26, 2007

GothicChess.Com said:

Code:

#define G(n) int n(int t, int q, int d)
#define X(p,t,s) (p>=t&&p<(t+s)&&(p-(t)&1023)<(s&1023))
#define U(m) *((signed char *)(m))
#define F if(!--q){
#define I(s) (int)main-(int)s
#define P(s,c,k) for(h=0; h>>14==0; h+=129)Y(16*c+h/1024+Y(V+36))&128>>(h&7)?U(s+(h&15367))=k:k

G (B)
{
  Z;
  F D = E (Y (V), C = E (Y (V), Y (t + 4) + 3, 4, 0), 2, 0);
  Y (t + 12) = Y (t + 20) = i;
  Y (t + 24) = 1;
  Y (t + 28) = t;
  Y (t + 16) = 442890;

....


for (; Y (j + 12) != Y (i + 24); j += 40);
	E (Y (n) = Y (j + 16) + i, n, 1, 0);
      }
  }
}

return D;
}

It will compile and run with no errors, and it actually does something!

Looks like some of the code I have to wade through on a daily basis... only difference is that it's not assembler! BLLLAAAHHK!

Todd

iSee · Jun 26, 2007

That code won't compile and run.
Where is that Z used near the top defined? On the next line, I don't think D is defined either.

lazydog · Jun 26, 2007

I think Z is defined in the makefile. I found the full source and instructions at
http://www.ioccc.org/years.html under gavin.

b e n

GothicChess.Com · Jun 26, 2007

Are you saying you're the author of this?
b e n

It was an example, you know, like other people post from time-to-time, like HiRez:

HiRez said:
This is why I love Python:

Code:

joined_string = ":".join(sample_array)

I said I had worked on an OS before, so I have many examples of such from way-back-when. The point was: there are ways to code that are complex, and there are ways to code that are easy to understand.

longofest · Jun 26, 2007

hey guys.

Seen a lot of good suggestions, but they are all implemented in a serial fashion, and doesn't take advantage of parallelism. While I know the question was a basic question, it can't be too early to start learning good habits for coding in parallel.

I'm kinda busy, so I won't actually write out code, but here's the idea (sorry for some C++ style pseudo-coding):

Code:

//globally accessible integer array
int myArray[foo] = {1,2,3,...,bar};

int main()
{
string string1, string2;

//spawn worker 1 thread
fork worker1(&string2);  

for(int i=0; i = foo/2; i++)
{
 string1.append(itoa(myArray[i]));
 string1.append(':');
}

//wait for worker1 to exit
join worker1;  

string1.append(string2);

//string1 now has everything you need.

return 0;
}

worker1(&string2)
{
for(int i=foo/2; i=foo; i++)
{
 string2.append(itoa(myArray[i]));
 string2.append(:);
}

return 0;
}

Real parallel programing would be better done than that, as it would contain logic to see how many processors you have and then spawn the appropriate number of threads to maximize performance. However, you get the idea.

MongoTheGeek · Jun 26, 2007

To do this in applescript...

set text item delimiters to ":"
return myArray as string

How big is the array that you are considering multithreading?

longofest · Jun 26, 2007

MongoTheGeek said:
How big is the array that you are considering multithreading?

I don't know, but note the following...

longofest said:
While I know the question was a basic question, it can't be too early to start learning good habits for coding in parallel.

Being that a majority of programmers today don't consider parallelism when programming, I'm just trying to raise awareness. Not necessarily saying it would be a good thing to do in this case (i.e. if the array was really small to begin with, the overhead of spawning a thread wouldn't be worth the gains).

lazydog · Jun 26, 2007

Hi Celia

I'm not sure if you are finished with this thread or not, but looking at your 'final code' I can see a few things that might cause you some problems:-

Code:

char intermediate_string[2];

This should be:-

Code:

char intermediate_string[4];

because it needs to hold 3 character length strings, ie "21:" "3a:" and "45:" (don't forget the terminating \0 needs a space too).

Code:

#define k_maximum_characters_for_demo 10

char your_output_as_a_C_string[k_maximum_characters_for_demo] =" ";

These two lines should be:-

Code:

#define k_maximum_characters_for_demo 10

char your_output_as_a_C_string[k_maximum_characters_for_demo+1] ="";

Again you need +1 because of the terminating \0 present in strings. Either that or in the rest of your code you would need to change your tests to:-

Code:

if(length_of_string > k_maximum_characters_for_demo - 1)

You're absolutely right about adding an initialisation string to your_output_as_aC_string. Without it the contents would be garbage and the first strcat() to it would produce unpredictable results. However ="" would have been sufficient unless you really wanted a space as the first character.

Finally

Code:

printf("%s", strcat(your_output_as_a_C_string, "\0" ));

the last strcat is not needed. strcat() appends a \0 for you automatically.

Hope this helps

b e n

macOS convert an array of ints - into a string with semicolon in between.

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