Writing to a Memory Buffer with FILE*

In programming, it can be useful to create a memory buffer that can be accessed as a FILE. This allows for flexible data manipulation and storage. However, finding a way to create such a memory buffer can be challenging. This question specifically delves into how to achieve this with FILE in TiXml, a popular XML parsing library.

Utilizing POSIX Functions

To address this issue, the solution lies in leveraging POSIX functions. POSIX provides two key functions that can help create a memory buffer as a FILE*:

• fmemopen: This function takes a memory buffer and creates a FILE* object that can be used to read or write to the buffer. It's designed for reading and writing operations.
• open_memstream: Unlike fmemopen, this function returns a FILE* pointer and stores the data written to the buffer in a stream, which provides additional flexibility for buffered operations.

Choosing the Appropriate Function

The choice between fmemopen and open_memstream depends on the intended usage:

• If your requirement is to simply read or write to a memory buffer, fmemopen is sufficient.
• If you need more advanced features like buffering and stream-based operations, open_memstream offers greater control.

By leveraging these POSIX functions, developers can effectively create memory buffers as FILE* objects, enabling them to print data to memory buffers seamlessly.