sprintf

[darren@example.com (Darren Cook)]

A little C problem for all you gurus out there.

In most compilers (eg. Borland,Microsoft,Linux GCC,Sparc C++ compiler)
sprintf is defined as:

int sprintf(char *buf,const char *fmt,...);      //Returns number of
characters put into buf.

So in my code I often use this kind of code to append strings.

char *p=buf;
p+=sprintf(p,"First line\n");
p+=sprintf(p,"Second line\n");
//etc.


But GCC 2.7.2 on a Sun has it defined (in stdio.h) as:

extern char	*sprintf _PARAMS((char *, const char *, ...));

Returning a char* screws up my code. All other printf functions (even
vsprintf) return the int! 

Q1. Is the char* it is returning a pointer to the beginning of the buffer,
or to the end of the buffer when it has finished?

Q2. Is there a way I can get round this?

My best idea so far is to replace all occurences in my code of sprintf with
mysprintf, and then put this code into a header file:
#if GCC_ON_SUN
int mysprintf(char *buf,const char *fmt,...){
    va_list argptr;
    va_start(argptr,fmt);
    int sz=vsprintf(buf,fmt,argptr);
    va_end(argptr);
    return sz;
}

#else
#define mysprintf sprintf
#endif

Is there a way to do something similar without having to rename sprintf in
my code?

Thanks in advance.

Darren




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