#ifndef STRINGUTIL_H		// -*- c++ -*-
#define STRINGUTIL_H
///
// Copyright (C) 2002 - 2004, Fredrik Arnerup & Rasmus Kaj, See COPYING
///
#include "typeinfo.h"
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
#include <stdexcept>
#include <iostream>
// The to / from string converters here is declared inline, since that is a
// lot easier than actually makeing partial template compilation work as it
// should.

/**
 * Convert a string to an arbitrary type.
 * \param C the type to convert to.
 * \param value the value to convert.
 */
template <class C>
C to(const std::string &value) {
  std::istringstream s(value);
  C c;
  if(s >> c) {
    if(!s.eof() && s.peek() != EOF)
      throw std::runtime_error("Trailing junk in " + TypeInfo<C>::name()
			       + " \"" + value + '"');
    return c;
  } else
    throw std::runtime_error("Bad " + TypeInfo<C>::name() + " value: \""
			     + value + '"');
}

/** Specialization; a string is "converted" to itself without change. */
template<> 
inline std::string to<std::string>(const std::string& value) {
  return value;
}

/**
 * Convert a value of an arbitrary type to its string representation.
 * \param C the type of value (can be implicit).
 * \param c the actual value
 */
template <class C>
std::string tostr(const C& c) {
  std::ostringstream s;
  s << c; 
  // std::ends inserts a null character _inside_ the string
  // this can lead to subtle errors
  return s.str();
}

template<> bool to<bool>(const std::string& value);
template<> std::string tostr(const bool& b);

/**
 * Check if a character is whitespace.
 */
bool whitespace(char c);

/**
 * Remove whitespace at the beginning and / or end of a string.
 * \param s the string
 * \param front if true, remove whitespace at the beginning of s.
 * \param back if true, remove whitespace at the end of s.
 */
std::string strip_whitespace(std::string s, bool front=true, bool back=true);

/**
 * Check if a specific string starts with a given string.
 * \param str the (longer) string to look in.
 * \param start the string to look for.
 */
bool starts_with(const std::string& str, const std::string& start);

/**
 * Check if a specific string starts with a given character.
 * \param str the string to look in.
 * \param start the character to look for.
 */
inline bool starts_with(const std::string& str, char start) {
  return str.length() > 0 && str[0] == start;
}

/**
 * A substitute for getline that treats line breaks in a
 * platform-independant way
 */
std::istream &safe_getline(std::istream &in, std::string &line);

/**
 * Escape characters that are illegal in xml.
 */
std::string to_xml(const std::string str);

/**
 * Convert a number to roman numerals.
 * Will throw an exception if the number is outside the range 1 - 3999.
 */
std::string to_roman(int num);

#endif