[erlang-bugs] lack of symmetry in format string for fwrite() and fread()

[Raimo Niskanen]

On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 01:55:11PM +0200, Bengt Kleberg wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> ~b is missing in fread() format string and ~d is missing in fwrite()
> format string.
> 
> Although properly documented I still feel that this is a bug in the
> handling of integers in the format string for fwrite() and fread().
> 

io_lib:fread("~16b", " -17 ")
-> {ok,[-23]," "}
would then be functionally equivalent to the existing:
io_lib:fread" ~-~16u", " -17 ")
-> {ok,[-1,23]," "}
that delivers the result in two variables, and
io_lib:fread("~b", " -17 ")
-> {ok,[-17]," "}
would then be the same as
io_lib:fread("~d", " -17 ")
-> {ok,[-17]," "}

io:fwrite("~d\n", [-17])
would then be the same as the existing:
io:fwrite("~b\n", [-17])
which actually is a shorthand for:
io:fwrite("~.10b\n", [-17])

So the missing read ~b and write ~d does not add
any functionality, we regard it as a low priority problem.

Do not count on them being added in the near future.



> Exmaple:
> > io:fwrite( "~b", [1]).
> 1
> > io:fwrite( "~d", [1]).
> ** exception exit: {badarg,[{io,format,[<0.30.0>,"~d",[1]]},
>                             {erl_eval,do_apply,5},
>                             {shell,exprs,6},
>                             {shell,eval_exprs,6},
>                             {shell,eval_loop,3}]}
>      in function  io:o_request/2
> 
> > io_lib:fread( "~d", "1").
> {ok,[1],[]}
> > io_lib:fread( "~b", "1").
> {error,{fread,format}}
> 
> 
> 
> bengt
> 
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-- 

/ Raimo Niskanen, Erlang/OTP, Ericsson AB