Interfacing with a vector as a stream using binary write() read()

Question

I'm currently investigating portable, idiomatic, standard library-only C++ methods of writing binary data into a std::vector<char>. I would like to interface with the container in the same manner as I would any other binary ostream, using the write() function.

So far the only thing I have turned up is inheriting from std::basic_streambuf<>. Are there any better alternatives to this?

I recall someone asking a similar question for `std::string`. Dunno if [my answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/39380374/1553090) is helpful to you, but have a look anyway. — paddy, May 16 '17 at 04:07
You may find the `char_array_buffer` example useful here: http://www.mr-edd.co.uk/blog/beginners_guide_streambuf — Galik, May 16 '17 at 04:18
@n.m. It may be a better fit. I certainly don't see any disadvantages to using `std::string` over `vector`. — chili, May 17 '17 at 01:36
@n.m. Hmm, I was somehow under the impression that stringstream did not support ``ss.write( &myInt,sizeof( myInt );`` — chili, May 17 '17 at 07:07
@n.m. Annoyingly, the ``write`` function seems to be skipping bytes which share the same value as whitespace characters here. I suppose this behavior can be inhibited by ``<< std::noskipws``. — chili, May 17 '17 at 08:22
"write function seems to be skipping bytes" Write function doesn't skip anything. If you have a problem using stringstream, ask a question. — n. 1.8e9-where's-my-share m., May 17 '17 at 08:47
@n.m. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/44022801/stringstream-write-skipping-whitespace — chili, May 17 '17 at 11:01

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 16 '17 at 04:00

You are correct, inheriting from std::basic_streambuf is the way to do it. Not sure if you are interested, but boost::iostreams and boost::interprocess have implemented this type of stuff already:

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_64_0/libs/iostreams/doc/index.html http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_64_0/doc/html/interprocess/streams.html

Interfacing with a vector as a stream using binary write() read()

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