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IceCream-Cpp

IceCream-Cpp is a little (single header) library to help with the print debugging in C++11 and forward.

Try it at Compiler Explorer!

Contents

• Install
  • Nix
  • Conan
• Usage
  • Direct printing
  • Range views pipeline
  • Return value and IceCream apply macro
  • Output formatting
  • Character Encoding
  • Configuration
    • enable/disable
    • output
    • prefix
    • show_c_string
    • wide_string_transcoder
    • unicode_transcoder
    • output_transcoder
    • line_wrap_width
    • include_context
    • context_delimiter
  • Printing strategies
    • C strings
    • Wide strings
    • Unicode strings
    • Streamable types
    • Pointer like types
    • Range types
    • Tuple like types
    • Optional types
    • Variant types
    • Exception types
    • Not streamable types
• Pitfalls

With IceCream, an execution inspection:

auto my_function(int i, double d) -> void
{
    std::cout << "1" << std::endl;
    if (condition)
        std::cout << "2" << std::endl;
    else
        std::cout << "3" << std::endl;
}

can be coded instead:

auto my_function(int i, double d) -> void
{
    IC();
    if (condition)
        IC();
    else
        IC();
}

and will print something like:

ic| test.cpp:34 in "void my_function(int, double)"
ic| test.cpp:36 in "void my_function(int, double)"

Also, any variable inspection like:

std::cout << "a: " << a
          << ", b: " << b
          << ", sum(a, b): " << sum(a, b)
          << std::endl;

can be simplified to:

IC(a, b, sum(a, b));

and will print:

ic| a: 7, b: 2, sum(a, b): 9

We also can inspect the data flowing through a range views pipeline (both STL ranges and Range-v3), by inserting a IC_V() function at the point of interest:

auto rv = std::vector<int>{1, 0, 2, 3, 0, 4, 5}
    | vws::split(0)
    | IC_V()
    | vws::enumerate;

So that when we iterate on rv, we will see the printing:

ic| range_view_63:16[0]: [1]
ic| range_view_63:16[1]: [2, 3]
ic| range_view_63:16[2]: [4, 5]

This library is inspired by the original Python IceCream library.

Install

The IceCream-Cpp is a one file, header only library, having the STL as its only dependency. The most immediate way to use it is just copy the icecream.hpp header into your project.

To properly install it system wide, together with the CMake project files, run these commands in IceCream-Cpp project root directory:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
cmake --install .

Nix

If using Nix, IceCream-Cpp can be included as a flakes input as

inputs.icecream-cpp.url = "github:renatoGarcia/icecream-cpp";

The IceCream-Cpp flake defines an overlay, so that it can be used when importing nixpkgs:

import nixpkgs {
  system = "x86_64-linux";
  overlays = [
    icecream-cpp.overlays.default
  ];
}

Doing this, an icecream-cpp derivation will be added to the nixpkgs attribute set.

A working example of how to use IceCream-Cpp in a flake project is here.

Conan

The released versions are available on Conan too:

conan install icecream-cpp/0.3.1@

Usage

If using CMake:

find_package(IcecreamCpp)
include_directories(${IcecreamCpp_INCLUDE_DIRS})

will add the installed directory within the include paths list.

After including the icecream.hpp header in a source file:

#include <icecream.hpp>

all the functionalities of IceCream-Cpp library will be available by the functions IC, IC_A, and IC_V; together with its respective counterparts IC_F, IC_FA, and IC_FV; that behave the same but accept an output formatting string as its first argument.

Direct printing

The IC is the simplest of the IceCream functions. If called with no arguments it will print the prefix, the source file name, the current line number, and the current function signature. The code:

auto my_function(int foo, double bar) -> void
{
    // ...
    IC();
    // ...
}

will print:

ic| test.cpp:34 in "void my_function(int, double)"

If called with arguments it will print the prefix, those arguments names, and its values. The code:

auto v0 = std::vector<int>{1, 2, 3};
auto s0 = std::string{"bla"};
IC(v0, s0, 3.14);

will print:

ic| v0: [1, 2, 3], s0: "bla", 3.14: 3.14

The variant IC_F behaves the same as the IC function, but accepts an output formatting string as its first argument.

Range views pipeline

To print the data flowing through a range views pipeline (both STL ranges and Range-v3), we use the IC_V function, which will print any input it receives from the previous view. Since the IC_V function is within a range views pipeline, the printing will be done lazily, while each element is generated. For instance:

namespace vws = std::views;
auto v0 = vws::iota('a') | vws::enumerate | IC_V() | vws::take(3);
for (auto e : v0)
{
    //...
}

In this code nothing will be printed when v0 is created, just when iterating over it. At each iteration in the for loop one line will be printed, until we have the output:

ic| range_view_61:53[0]: (0, 'a')
ic| range_view_61:53[1]: (1, 'b')
ic| range_view_61:53[2]: (2, 'c')

[!NOTE] IceCream-Cpp will try to detect if the Range-v3 library is installed, and if so, the support to it will be automatically enabled. When using C++11 and C++14 however, there is a chance of having Range-v3 in the system, but IceCream not finding it. To make sure that the support to Range-v3 is enabled, just define the macro ICECREAM_RANGE_V3 before including the icecream.hpp header

The IC_V function has two optional parameters, IC_V(name, projection).

name

The variable name used to the view when printing. The printing layout is: <name>[<idx>]: <value>. If the name parameter is not used, the default value to <name> is range_view_<source_location>.

The code:

vws::iota('a') | vws::enumerate | IC_V("foo") | vws::take(2);

when iterated over will print:

ic| foo[0]: (0, 'a')
ic| foo[1]: (1, 'b')

projection

A callable that will receive as input the elements from the previous view and must return the actual object to be printed.

The code:

vws::iota('a') | vws::enumerate | IC_V([](auto e){return std::get<1>(e);}) | vws::take(2);

when iterated over will print:

ic| range_view_61:53[0]: 'a'
ic| range_view_61:53[1]: 'b'

[!NOTE] The IC_V function will still forward to the next view an unchanged input element, exactly as it was received from the previous view. None action done by the projection function will have any effect on that.

The variant IC_FV has the same behavior as the IC_V function, but accepts an output formatting string as its first argument.

Return value and IceCream apply macro

Except when called with exactly one argument, the IC function will return a tuple with all its input arguments. If called with one argument it will return the argument itself.

This is done this way so that you can use IC to inspect a function argument at calling point, with no further code change. In the code:

my_function(IC(MyClass{}));

the MyClass object will be forwarded to my_function exactly the same as if the IC function was not there. The my_function will continue receiving a rvalue reference to a MyClass object.

This approach however is not so practical when the function has many arguments. On the code:

my_function(IC(a), IC(b), IC(c), IC(d));

besides writing four times the IC function, the printed output will be split in four distinct lines. Something like:

ic| a: 1
ic| b: 2
ic| c: 3
ic| d: 4

Unfortunately, just wrapping all the four arguments in a single IC call will not work too. The returned value will be a std:::tuple with (a, b, c, d) and the my_function expects four arguments.

To work around that, there is the IC_A function. IC_A behaves exactly like the IC function, but receives a callable as its first argument, and will call it using all the next arguments, printing all of them before that. That previous example code could be rewritten as:

IC_A(my_function, a, b, c, d);

and this time it will print:

ic| a: 1, b: 2, c: 3, d: 4

The IC_A function will return the same value as returned by the callable. The code:

auto mc = std::make_unique<MyClass>();
auto r = IC_A(mc->my_function, a, b);

behaves exactly the same as:

auto mc = std::make_unique<MyClass>();
auto r = mc->my_function(a, b);

but will print the values of a and b.

The variant IC_FA behaves the same as the IC_A function, but accepts an output formatting string as its first argument, even before the callable argument.

Output formatting

It is possible to configure how the value must be formatted while printing. The following code:

auto a = int{42};
auto b = int{20};
IC_F("#X", a, b);

will print:

ic| a: 0X2A, b: 0X14

when using the IC_F variant instead of the plain IC functio. A similar result would be obtained if using IC_FA and IC_FV in place of IC_A and IC_V respectively.

When using the formatting function variants (IC_F and IC_FA), the same formatting string will be applied by default to all the arguments. That could be a problem if we wish to have arguments with distinct formatting, or if the arguments have multiple types with non mutually valid syntaxes. Therefore, to set a distinct formatting string to a specific argument we can wrap it with the IC_ function. The code:

auto a = int{42};
auto b = int{20};
IC_F("#X", a, IC_("d", b));

will print:

ic| a: 0X2A, b: 20

The IC_ function can be used within the plain IC (or IC_A) function too:

auto a = int{42};
auto b = int{20};
IC(IC_("#x", a), b);

will print:

ic| a: 0x2a, b: 20

The last argument in an IC_ function call is the one that will be printed, all other arguments that come before the last will be converted to a string using the to_string function and concatenated as the resulting formatting string.

auto a = float{1.234};
auto width = int{7};
IC(IC_("*<",width,".3", a));

Will have as result a formatting string "*<7.3", and will print:

ic| a: 1.23***

Just for completeness in the examples, an usage of IC_FA and IC_FV would be:

IC_FA("#x", my_function, 10, 20);
auto rv0 = vws::iota(0) | IC_FV("[::2]:#x", "bar") | vws::take(5);

This will print:

ic| 10: 0xa, 20: 0x14

and when iterating on rv0:

ic| bar[0]: 0
ic| bar[2]: 0x2
ic| bar[4]: 0x4

To IC_F and IC_FA, the syntax specification of the formatting strings depends both on the type T being printed, and in that type's printing strategy used by IceCream.

To IC_FV, the formatting syntax if the same as the Range format string.

Character Encoding

Character encoding in C++ is messy.

The char8_t, char16_t, and char32_t strings are well defined. They are capable, and do hold Unicode code units of 8, 16, and 32 bits respectively, and they are encoded in UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32 also respectively.

The char strings have a well defined code unit bit size (given by CHAR_BIT, usually 8 bits), but there are no requirements about its encoding.

The wchar_t strings have neither a well defined code unit size, nor any requirements about its encoding.

In a code like this:

auto const str = std::string{"foo"};
std::cout << str;

We will have three character encoding points of interest. In the first one, before compiling, that code will be in a source file in an unspecified "source encoding". In the second interest point, the compiled binary will have the "foo" string saved in an unspecified "execution encoding". Finally on the third point, the "foo" byte stream received by std::cout will be ultimately forwarded to the system, that expects the stream being encoded in an also unspecified "output encoding".

From that three interest points of character encoding, both "execution encoding", and "output encoding" have impact in the inner working of Icecream-cpp, and there is no way to know for sure what is the used encoding in both of them. In face of this uncertainty, the adopted strategy is offer a reasonable default transcoding function, that will try convert the data to the right encoding, and allow the user to use its own implementation when needed.

Except for wide and Unicode string types (discussed below), when printing any other type we will have its serialized textual data in "execution encoding". That "execution encoding" may or may not be the same as the "output encoding", this one being the encoding expected by the configured output. Because of that, before we send that data to the output, we must transcode it to make sure that we have it in "output encoding". To that end, before delivering the text data to the output, we send it to the configured output_transcoder function, that must ensure it is encoded in the correct "output encoding".

When printing the wide and Unicode string types, we need to have one more transcoding level, because it is possible that the text data is in a distinct character encoding from the expected "execution encoding". Because of that, additional logic is applied to make sure that the strings are in "execution encoding" before we send them to output. This is further discussed in wide strings, and unicode strings sections.

Configuration

The Icecream-cpp configuration system works "layered by scope". At the basis level we have the global IC_CONFIG object. That global instance is shared by the whole running program, as would be expected of a global variable. It is created with all config options at its default values, and any change is readily seen by the whole program.

At any point of the code we can create a new config layer at the current scope by instantiating a new IC_CONFIG variable, calling the IC_CONFIG_SCOPE() macro. All the config options of this new instance will be in an "unset" state by default, and any request to an option value not yet set will be delegated to its parent. That request will go up on the parent chain until the first one having that option set answers.

All config options are set by using accessor methods of the IC_CONFIG object, and they can be chained:

IC_CONFIG
    .prefix("ic: ")
    .show_c_string(false)
    .line_wrap_width(70);

IC_CONFIG is just a regular variable with a funny name to make a collision extremely unlikely. When calling any IC*(...) macro, it will pick the IC_CONFIG instance at scope by doing an unqualified name lookup, using the same rules applied to any other regular variable.

To summarize all the above, in the code:

auto my_function() -> void
{
    IC_CONFIG.line_wrap_width(20);

    IC_CONFIG_SCOPE();
    IC_CONFIG.context_delimiter("|");
    IC_CONFIG.show_c_string(true);

    {
        IC_CONFIG_SCOPE();
        IC_CONFIG.show_c_string(false);
        // A
    }
    // B
}

At line A, the value of IC_CONFIG's line_wrap_width, context_delimiter, and show_c_string will be respectively: 20, "|", and false.

After the closing of the innermost scope block, at line B, the value of IC_CONFIG's line_wrap_width, context_delimiter, and show_c_string will be respectively: 20, "|", and true.

The reading and writing operations on IC_CONFIG objects are thread safe.

[!NOTE] Any modification in an IC_CONFIG, other than to the global instance, will be seen only within the current scope. As consequence, those modifications won't propagate to the scope of any called function.

enable/disable

Enable or disable the output of IC(...) macro, enabled default.

• get:

  auto is_enabled() const -> bool;
  

• set:

  auto enable() -> Config&;
  auto disable() -> Config&;
  

The code:

IC(1);
IC_CONFIG.disable();
IC(2);
IC_CONFIG.enable();
IC(3);

will print:

ic| 1: 1
ic| 3: 3

output

Sets where the serialized textual data will be printed. By default that data will be printed on the standard error output, the same as std::cerr.

• get:

  auto output() const -> std::function<void(std::string const&)>;
  

• set:

  template <typename T>
  auto output(T&& t) -> Config&;
  

Where the type T can be any of:

• A class inheriting from std::ostream.
• A class having a method push_back(char).
• An output iterator that accepts the operation *it = 'c'

For instance, the code:

auto str = std::string{};
IC_CONFIG.output(str);
IC(1, 2);

Will print the output "ic| 1: 1, 2: 2\n" on the str string.

[!WARNING] Icecream-cpp won't take ownership of the argument t, so care must be taken by the user to ensure that it is alive.

prefix

A function that generate the text that will be printed before each output.

• get:

  auto prefix() const -> std::function<std::string()>;
  

• set:

  template <typename... Ts>
  auto prefix(Ts&& ...values) -> Config&;
  

Where the types Ts can be any of:

• A string,
• A callable T() -> U, where U has an overload of operator<<(ostream&, U).

The printed prefix will be a concatenation of all those elements.

The code:

IC_CONFIG.prefix("icecream| ");
IC(1);
IC_CONFIG.prefix([]{return 42;}, "- ");
IC(2);
IC_CONFIG.prefix("thread ", std::this_thread::get_id, " | ");
IC(3);

will print:

icecream| 1: 1
42- 2: 2
thread 1 | 3: 3

show_c_string

Controls if a char* variable should be interpreted as a null-terminated C string (true) or a pointer to a char (false). The default value is true.

• get:

  auto show_c_string() const -> bool;
  

• set:

  auto show_c_string(bool value) -> Config&;
  

The code:

char const* flavor = "mango";

IC_CONFIG.show_c_string(true);
IC(flavor);

IC_CONFIG.show_c_string(false);
IC(flavor);

will print:

ic| flavor: "mango";
ic| flavor: 0x55587b6f5410

wide_string_transcoder

Function that transcodes a wchar_t string, from a system defined encoding to a char string in the system "execution encoding".

• get:

  auto wide_string_transcoder() const -> std::function<std::string(wchar_t const*, std::size_t)>;
  

• set:

  auto wide_string_transcoder(std::function<std::string(wchar_t const*, std::size_t)> transcoder) -> Config&;
  auto wide_string_transcoder(std::function<std::string(std::wstring_view)> transcoder) -> Config&;
  

There is no guarantee that the input string will end on a null terminator (this is the actual semantic of string_view), so the user must observe the input string size value.

The default implementation will check if the C locale is set to other value than "C" or "POSIX". If yes, it will forward the input to the std::wcrtomb function. Otherwise, it will assume that the input is Unicode encoded (UTF-16 or UTF-32, accordingly to the byte size of wchar_t), and transcoded it to UTF-8.

unicode_transcoder

Function that transcodes a char32_t string, from a UTF-32 encoding to a char string in the system "execution encoding".

• get:

  auto unicode_transcoder() const -> std::function<std::string(char32_t const*, std::size_t)>;
  

• set:

  auto unicode_transcoder(std::function<std::string(char32_t const*, std::size_t)> transcoder) -> Config&;
  auto unicode_transcoder(std::function<std::string(std::u32string_view)> transcoder) -> Config&;
  

There is no guarantee that the input string will end on a null terminator (this is the actual semantic of string_view), so the user must observe the input string size value.

The default implementation will check the C locale is set to other value than "C" or "POSIX". If yes, it will forward the input to the std::c32rtomb function. Otherwise, it will just transcoded it to UTF-8.

This function will be used to transcode all the char8_t, char16_t, and char32_t strings. When transcoding char8_t and char16_t strings, they will be first converted to a char32_t string, before being sent as input to this function.

output_transcoder

Function that transcodes a char string, from the system "execution encoding" to a char string in the system "output encoding", as expected by the configured output.

• get:

  auto output_transcoder() const -> std::function<std::string(char const*, std::size_t)>;
  

• set:

  auto output_transcoder(std::function<std::string(char const*, std::size_t)> transcoder) -> Config&;
  auto output_transcoder(std::function<std::string(std::string_view)> transcoder) -> Config&;
  

There is no guarantee that the input string will end on a null terminator (this is the actual semantic of string_view), so the user must observe the input string size value.

The default implementation assumes that the "execution encoding" is the same as the "output encoding", and will just return an unchanged input.

line_wrap_width

The maximum number of characters before the output be broken on multiple lines. Default value of 70.

• get:

  auto line_wrap_width() const -> std::size_t;
  

• set:

  auto line_wrap_width(std::size_t value) -> Config&;
  

include_context

If the context (source name, line number, and function name) should be printed even when printing variables. Default value is false.

• get:

  auto include_context() const -> bool;
  

• set:

  auto include_context(bool value) -> Config&;
  

context_delimiter

The string separating the context text from the variables values. Default value is "- ".

• get:

  auto context_delimiter() const -> std::string;
  

• set:

  auto context_delimiter(std::string const& value) -> Config&;
  

Printing strategies

In order to be printable, a type T must satisfy one of the strategies described in the next sections. If it happens that multiple strategies are satisfied, the one with the higher precedence will be chosen.

The strategy with the highest precedence is to use the STL stream-based I/O. Consequently, when printing an object of type T, if there exist an overloaded function operator<<(ostream&, T), it will be used.

C strings

C strings are ambiguous. Should a char* foo variable be interpreted as a pointer to a single char or as a null-terminated string? Likewise, is the char bar[] variable an array of single characters or a null-terminated string? Is char baz[3] an array with three single characters or is it a string of size two plus a '\0'?

Each one of those interpretations of foo, bar, and baz would be printed in a distinct way. To the code:

char flavor[] = "pistachio";
IC(flavor);

all three outputs below are correct, each one having a distinct interpretation of what should be the flavor variable.

ic| flavor: 0x55587b6f5410
ic| flavor: ['p', 'i', 's', 't', 'a', 'c', 'h', 'i', 'o', '\0']
ic| flavor: "pistachio"

The IceCream-Cpp policy is handle any bounded char array (i.e.: array with a known size) as an array of single characters. So the code:

char flavor[] = "chocolate";
IC(flavor);

will print:

ic| flavor: ['c', 'h', 'o', 'c', 'o', 'l', 'a', 't', 'e', '\0']

unbounded char[] arrays (i.e.: array with an unknown size) will decay to char* pointers, and will be printed either as a string or a pointer as configured by the show_c_string option.

Wide strings

Any realization of wchar_t strings, like wchar_t*, std::wstring, and std::string_view

Since the output expects a char string, we must convert the text data to that format, making sure that it is in "execution encoding". Icecream-cpp implements a default transcoder function for doing that, but is possible to customize it by setting the wide_string_transcoder option.

Unicode strings

Any realization of char8_t, char16_t, and char32_t strings, like char32_t*, std::u8string, and std::u16string_view

Since the output expects a char string, we must convert the data to that format, making sure that it is in "execution encoding". Icecream-cpp implements a default transcoder function for doing that, but is possible to customize it by setting the unicode_transcoder option.

Streamable types

A type T is streamable if an overloading function operator<<(std::ostream&, T)is defined. This is the printing strategy with the highest priority, so if that overload exists to a type T, it will be the used strategy.

Streamable format string

The STL stream-based I/O hasn't the concept of a formatting string, all the configurations are done using manipulators. Because of that, we have created a custom formatting string syntax, strongly based on {fmt} and STL Formatting.

It has the following specification:

format_spec ::=  [[fill]align][sign]["#"][width]["." precision][type]
fill        ::=  <a character>
align       ::=  "<" | ">" | "v"
sign        ::=  "+" | "-"
width       ::=  integer
precision   ::=  integer
type        ::=  "a" | "A" | "d" | "e" | "E" | "f" | "F" | "g" | "G" | "o" | "x" | "X"
integer     ::=  digit+
digit       ::=  "0"..."9"

[[fill]align]

The fill character can be any char. The presence of a fill character is signaled by the character following it, which must be one of the alignment options. The meaning of the alignment options is as follows:

Note that unless a minimum field width is defined, the field width will always be the same size as the data to fill it, so that the alignment option has no meaning in this case.

[sign]

The sign option is only valid for number types, and can be one of the following:

["#"]

Causes the “alternate form” to be used for the conversion. The alternate form is defined differently for different types. This option is only valid for integer and floating-point types. For integers, when binary, octal, or hexadecimal output is used, this option adds the prefix respective "0b" ("0B"), "0", or "0x" ("0X") to the output value. Whether the prefix is lower-case or upper-case is determined by the case of the type specifier, for example, the prefix "0x" is used for the type 'x' and "0X" is used for 'X'. For floating-point numbers the alternate form causes the result of the conversion to always contain a decimal-point character, even if no digits follow it. Normally, a decimal-point character appears in the result of these conversions only if a digit follows it. In addition, for 'g' and 'G' conversions, trailing zeros are not removed from the result.

[width]

A decimal integer defining the minimum field width. If not specified, then the field width will be determined by the content.

["." precision]

The precision is a decimal number indicating how many digits should be displayed after the decimal point for a floating-point value formatted with 'f' and 'F', or before and after the decimal point for a floating-point value formatted with 'g' or 'G'. For non-number types the field indicates the maximum field size - in other words, how many characters will be used from the field content. The precision is not allowed for integer, character, Boolean, and pointer values. Note that a C string must be null-terminated even if precision is specified.

[type]

Determines how the data should be presented.

The available integer presentation types are:

The available presentation types for floating-point values are:

Pointer like types

The std::unique_ptr<T> (before C++20) and boost::scoped_ptr<T> types will be printed like usual raw pointers.

The std::weak_ptr<T> and boost::weak_ptr<T> types will print their address if they are valid or "expired" otherwise. The code:

auto v0 = std::make_shared<int>(7);
auto v1 = std::weak_ptr<int> {v0};

IC(v1);
v0.reset();
IC(v1);

will print:

ic| v1: 0x55bcbd840ec0
ic| v1: expired

Range types

A range is any type able to provide a [begin, end) iterator pair. In precise terms, the Icecream-cpp library is able to print a range type R if it fulfills the forward_range concept. In roughly terms, a range type R having an iterator type I and a sentinel type S (used to mark the end of the range, can be the same type as I) is a forward range if all the following operations are valid:

I i0 = begin(r);
S s = end(r);
I i1(i0);
i0 == i1
i0 != i1
i0 == s
i0 != s
++i0;
*i0;

If all that operations are valid, the type R is not streamable but the elements inside R are, IceCream will print all items within R in place of R itself.

The code:

auto v0 = std::list<int>{10, 20, 30};
IC(v0);

will print:

ic| v0: [10, 20, 30]

Although lazily printing one item at a time, instead of the whole range at once. The IC_V function is printing a range too.

Range format string

The accepted formatting string to a range type is a combination of both a range formatting and its elements formatting. The range formatting is syntactically and semantically almost identical to the Python slicing.

Formally, the accepted range types formatting string is:

format_spec  ::=  [range_fmt][":"elements_fmt]
range_fmt    ::=  "[" slicing | index "]"
slicing      ::=  [lower_bound] ":" [upper_bound] [ ":" [stride] ]
lower_bound  ::=  integer
upper_bound  ::=  integer
stride       ::=  integer
index        ::=  integer
integer      ::=  ["-"]digit+
digit        ::=  "0"..."9"

The same elements_fmt string will be used by all the printing elements, so it will have the same syntax as the formatting string of the range elements.

The code:

auto arr = std::vector<int>{10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15};
IC_F("[:2:-1]:#x", arr);

will print:

ic| arr: [:2:-1]->[0xf, 0xe, 0xd]

Even though the specification says that lower_bound, upper_bound, stride, and index, can have any integer value, some range capabilities can restrict them to just positive values.

If a range is not sized, the lower_bound, upper_bound, and index values must be positive. Similarly, if a range is not bidirectional the stride value must be positive too.

When printing within a range views pipeline using the IC_FV function, all the lower_bound, upper_bound, and index values must be positive.

Tuple like types

A std::pair<T1, T2> or std::tuple<Ts...> typed variables will print all of its elements.

The code:

auto v0 = std::make_pair(10, 3.14);
auto v1 = std::make_tuple(7, 6.28, "bla");
IC(v0, v1);

will print:

ic| v0: (10, 3.14), v1: (7, 6.28, "bla")

Optional types

A std::optional<T> typed variable will print its value, if it has one, or nullopt otherwise.

The code:

auto v0 = std::optional<int> {10};
auto v1 = std::optional<int> {};
IC(v0, v1);

will print:

ic| v0: 10, v1: nullopt

Variant types

A std::variant<Ts...> or boost::variant2::variant<Ts...> typed variable will print its value.

The code:

auto v0 = std::variant<int, double, char> {4.2};
IC(v0);

will print:

ic| v0: 4.2

Exception types

Types inheriting from std::exception will print the return of std::exception::what() method. If beyond that it inherits from boost::exception too, the response of boost::diagnostic_information() will be also printed.

The code:

auto v0 = std::runtime_error("error description");
IC(v0);

will print:

ic| v0: error description

Not streamable types (Clang only)

If using Clang >= 15, a class will be printable even without an operator<<(ostream&, T) overload.

The code:

class S
{
public:
    float f;
    int ii[3];
};

S s = {3.14, {1,2,3}};
IC(s);

will print:

ic| s: {f: 3.14, ii: [1, 2, 3]}

Pitfalls

IC(...) is a preprocessor macro, it can cause conflicts if there is some other IC identifier on code. To change the IC(...) macro to a longer ICECREAM(...) one, just define ICECREAM_LONG_NAME before the inclusion of icecream.hpp header:

#define ICECREAM_LONG_NAME
#include "icecream.hpp"

While most compilers will work just fine, until the C++20 the standard requires at least one argument when calling a variadic macro. To handle this the nullary macros IC0() and ICECREAM0() are defined alongside IC(...) and ICECREAM(...).