The Abseil str_format Library

By Juemin Yang, Abseil Engineer

Abseil now includes a type-safe string formatting library: str_format. The str_format library is a typesafe replacement for the family of printf() string formatting routines within the <cstdio> standard library header. The str_format library provides most of the functionality of printf() type string formatting and a number of additional benefits:

• Type safety, including native support for std::string and absl::string_view
• Reliable behavior independent of standard libraries
• Support for the POSIX positional extensions
• Much faster (generally 2 to 3 times faster) than native printf functions
• Streamable to a variety of existing sinks

For more information, consult Abseil’s StrFormat Guide If you are interested in the design of this library, check out our StrFormat Design Notes.