Sprintf-like formatting with optional parameters

Question

I am displaying address data that is pulled from customer-supplied records, and trying to format it properly. Each client can specify how they want their customer data to appear, so I am using an editable JSON-based template for each client that makes use of php's sprintf() and it's formatting capability.

So client A, wanting their addresses to appear like:

Bill Smith
123 Fake St
Whoville, OH

Would have a saved format of %s<br>%s<br>%s, %s.

Client B wants:

Bill Smith
123 Fake St, Whoville, OH 94301

With a saved format of %s<br>%s, %s, %s %s

I then store these formattings in a client-specific template that tells me which fields to pull from and the format, i.e:

{
    "fields": [
        "full_name",
        "street",
        "city",
        "state",
        "zip"
    ],
    "format": "%s<br>%s, %s, %s %s"
}

Decoding the JSON, pulling the data and writing it using sprintf() with the supplied format works well, and doesn't require me creating a custom formatting function to handle the various address formats. The problem is that if a piece of data is empty, it gets displayed, i.e. if the street address is missing, we have:

Bill Smith
, Whoville, OH 94301

I am trying to come up with a solution that doesn't require re-inventing the wheel, but am open to other architectures that will give me the flexibility to handle 'optional' data with corresponding flexible formatting.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:32:03Z

1

I've found and implemented a solution that works rather well, based on this answer.

Essentially, I am breaking up the formatting components and matching them with the data components, so that I have something like:

{
  "data": "Bill Smith",
  "format": "%s"
},
{
  "data": "123 Fake St",
  "format": "<br>%s,"
},
{
  "data": "Whoville",
  "format": " %s,"
},
{
  "data": "OH",
  "format": " %s"
}

When I run through the above components, I then check for a value in .data and if found, concatenate the format component to a format variable. At the end, I run the data components and the concatenated format string through vsprintf(). Not perfect, but working better than before and fairly flexible.

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:32

CommunityBot

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answered Mar 14, 2013 at 21:20

Unpossible

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