# Tutorial

## 2.2.8. Multi-Character Filters

All the Filters you've seen so far — except for those that derive from `stdio_filter` — process characters one at a time. If you instead process several characters at once, you can often reduce the number of function calls it takes to filter a character sequence, resulting in more efficient code. This is what Multi-Character Filters allow us to do.

#### Multi-Character InputFilters

A typical narrow-character Multi-Character InputFilter looks like this:

    #include <iosfwd>                          // streamsize
    #include <boost/iostreams/categories.hpp>  // tags

    class my_input_filter {
    public:
        typedef char char_type;
        struct category
            : input_filter_tag,
              multichar_tag
            { };

        template<typename Source>
        std::streamsize read(Source& src, char* s, std::streamsize n)
        {
            // Read up to n filtered characters into the buffer s,
            // returning the number of characters read or -1 for EOF.
            // Use src to access the unfiltered character sequence
        }

        /* Other members */
    };

Notice that the member type category is a `struct` convertible to `input_filter_tag` and to `multichar_tag`. This tells the Iostream library that `my_input_filter` is a Multi-Character Filter and an InputFilter. You could have achieved the same effect several ways. E.g.,

        struct category
            : input,
              filter_tag,
              multichar_tag
            { };

            /* or */

        typedef multichar_input_filter_tag category;

(For details, see Mode Tags and Category Tags.)

You could also write the above example as follows:

    #include <iosfwd>                       // streamsize
    #include <boost/iostreams/concepts.hpp> // multichar_input_filter

    class my_input_filter : public multichar_input_filter {
    public:
        template<typename Source>
        std::streamsize read(char* s, std::streamsize n);

        /* Other members */
    };

Here `multichar_input_filter` is a convenience base class which provides the member types `char_type` and `category`, as well as no-op implementations of member functions `close` and `imbue`.

#### `shell_comments_multichar_input_filter`

You can express a shell comments Filter as an Multi-Character InputFilter as follows:

    #include <boost/iostreams/char_traits.hpp> // EOF, WOULD_BLOCK
    #include <boost/iostreams/concepts.hpp>    // multichar_input_filter
    #include <boost/iostreams/operations.hpp>  // get

    namespace boost { namespace iostreams { namespace example {

    class shell_comments_multichar_input_filter : public multichar_input_filter {
    public:
        explicit shell_comments_multichar_input_filter(char comment_char = '#')
            : comment_char_(comment_char), skip_(false)
            { }

        template<typename Source>
        std::streamsize read(Source& src, char* s, std::streamsize n)
        {
            for (std::streamsize z = 0; z < n; ++z) {
                int c;
                while (true) {
                    if ((c = boost::iostreams::get(src)) == EOF)
                        return z != 0 ? z : -1;
                    else if (c == WOULD_BLOCK)
                        return z;
                    skip_ = c == comment_char_ ?
                        true :
                        c == '\n' ?
                            false :
                            skip_;
                    if (!skip_)
                        break;
                }
                s[z] = c;
            }
            return n;
        }

        template<typename Source>
        void close(Source&) { skip_ = false; }
    private:
        char comment_char_;
        bool skip_;
    };

    } } } // End namespace boost::iostreams:example

Note that the implementation of `read` is very similar to what you would get if you put the implementation of `shell_comments_input_filter::get` inside a `for` loop iterating from `0` to `n`. InputFilters which call themselves recursively, such as `tab_expanding_input_filter`, are much harder to transform into Multi-Character filters.

#### Multi-Character OutputFilters

A typical narrow-character Multi-Character OutputFilter looks like this:

    #include <iosfwd>                          // streamsize
    #include <boost/iostreams/categories.hpp>  // tags

    class my_output_filter {
    public:
        typedef char char_type;
        struct category
            : output_filter_tag,
              multichar_tag
            { };

        template<typename Sink>
        std::streamsize write(Sink& dest, const char* s, std::streamsize n)
        {
            // Consume up to n filtered characters from the buffer s,
            // writing filtered characters to dest. Return the number
            // of characters consumed.
        }

        /* Other members */
    };

Notice that the member type category is a `struct` convertible to `keyword` and to `multichar_tag`. This tells the Iostream library that `my_output_filter` is a Multi-Character Filter and an OutputFilter. As with Multi-Character InputFilters, you could have achieved the same effect several different ways. E.g.,

        struct category
            : output,
              filter_tag,
              multichar_tag
            { };

            /* or */

        typedef multichar_output_filter_tag category;

(For details, see Mode Tags and Category Tags.)

You could also write the above example as follows:

    #include <iosfwd>                       // streamsize
    #include <boost/iostreams/concepts.hpp> // multichar_output_filter

    class my_output_filter : public multichar_output_filter {
    public:
        template<typename Sink>
        std::streamsize write(Sink& dest, const char* s, std::streamsize n);

        /* Other members */
    };

Here `multichar_output_filter` is a convenience base class which provides the member types `char_type` and `category`, as well as no-op implementations of member functions `close` and `imbue`.

#### `shell_comments_multichar_output_filter`

You can express a shell comments Filter as an Multi-Character OutputFilter as follows:

    #include <boost/iostreams/char_traits.hpp> // EOF, WOULD_BLOCK
    #include <boost/iostreams/concepts.hpp>    // multichar_output_filter
    #include <boost/iostreams/operations.hpp>  // get

    namespace boost { namespace iostreams { namespace example {

    class shell_comments_multichar_output_filter : public multichar_output_filter {
    public:
        explicit shell_comments_multichar_output_filter(char comment_char = '#')
            : comment_char_(comment_char), skip_(false)
            { }

        template<typename Sink>
        std::streamsize write(Sink& dest, const char* s, std::streamsize n)
        {
            std::streamsize z;
            for (z = 0; z < n; ++z) {
                int c = s[z];
                skip_ = c == comment_char_ ?
                    true :
                    c == '\n' ?
                        false :
                        skip_;
                if (skip_)
                    continue;
                if (!iostreams::put(dest, c))
                    break;
            }
            return z;
        }

        template<typename Source>
        void close(Source&) { skip_ = false; }
    private:
        char comment_char_;
        bool skip_;
    };

    } } } // End namespace boost::iostreams:example

Note that the implementation of `write` is very similar to what you would get if you put the implementation of `shell_comments_output_filter::put` inside a `for` loop iterating from `0` to `n`. OutputFilters which call themselves recursively, such as `unix2dos_output_filter`, are much harder to transform into Multi-Character filters.

Revised 20 May, 2004

© Copyright Jonathan Turkanis, 2004

Use, modification, and distribution are subject to the Boost Software License, Version 2.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)