type (='a:level, #'b:level) t
The abstract type of buffers.
val create : 'a int -> ('a, 'b) t
create n returns a fresh buffer, initially empty.
The n parameter is the initial size of the internal string
that holds the buffer contents. That string is automatically
reallocated when more than n characters are stored in the buffer,
but shrinks back to n characters when reset is called.
For best performance, n should be of the same order of magnitude
as the number of characters that are expected to be stored in
the buffer (for instance, 80 for a buffer that holds one output
line). Nothing bad will happen if the buffer grows beyond that
limit, however. In doubt, take n = 16 for instance.
If n is not between 1 and Sys.max_string_length, it will
be clipped to that interval.
val contents : ('a, 'b) t -> 'b string
with 'a < 'b
Return a copy of the current contents of the buffer.
The buffer itself is unchanged.
val length : ('a, 'b) t -> 'b int
with 'a < 'b
Return the number of characters currently contained in the buffer.
val clear : ('a, 'a) t -{'a ||}-> unit
Empty the buffer.
val reset : ('a, 'a) t -{'a ||}-> unit
Empty the buffer and deallocate the internal string holding the
buffer contents, replacing it with the initial internal string
of length n that was allocated by Buffer.create n.
For long-lived buffers that may have grown a lot, reset allows
faster reclamation of the space used by the buffer.
val add_char : ('a, 'a) t -> 'a char -{'a ||}-> unit
add_char b c appends the character c at the end of the buffer b.
val add_substring : ('a, 'a) t ->
'a string -> 'a int -> 'a int -{'a ||}-> unit
add_substring b s ofs len takes len characters from offset
ofs in string s and appends them at the end of the buffer b.
val add_string : ('a, 'a) t -> 'a string -{'a ||}-> unit
add_string b s appends the string s at the end of the buffer b.
val add_buffer : ('a, 'a) t -> ('b, 'a) t -{'a ||}-> unit
with 'b < 'a
add_buffer b1 b2 appends the current contents of buffer b2
at the end of buffer b1. b2 is not modified.
This module implements string buffers that automatically expand as necessary. It provides accumulative concatenation of strings in quasi-linear time (instead of quadratic time when strings are concatenated pairwise).