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A C++ to HTML conversion utility

By , 24 May 2004
 

Introduction

Cpphtml is a utility to convert your C++ code to HTML. If you have a C++ file, say myprogram.cpp, and you want to put it on your website, you can run it through Cpphtml which will convert the code to HTML with all comments, keywords and preprocessor directives highlighted. Cpphtml will send all output to cout, so you have to redirect the output to a file if you want to create a HTML file:

C:\>cpphtml myprogram.cpp >myprogram.htm

Cpphtml will convert all tabs to 4 spaces. If you want the tab size to be 8 spaces, you can specify the tab size on the command line:

C:\>cpphtml myprogram.cpp 8 >myprogram.htm

The HTML code contains a <style> element which contains style rules for comments, keywords and preprocessor directives. So, you don't have to do a search-and-replace if you want to change, say, the color of keywords. For example, if you want all keywords in bold, just change the .keyword style rule: .keyword{color:rgb(0,0,255);font-weight:bold}. It's that easy.

I don't claim Cpphtml works perfectly. I tested it on the Dinkumware STL files, the source of Cpphtml, and a large Microsoft CPP file. The results are great. Cpphtml was compiled with the Borland C++ 5.5 command line compiler: bcc32 cpphtml.cpp.

A walk through the code

#include<fstream>
#include<string>
#include<ctype.h>

Cpphtml will replace all tabs by 4 spaces if no tab size is specified. Change _TABSIZE to 8 if you want the default tab size to be 8.

#define _TABSIZE    4

using namespace std;

int tabsize = _TABSIZE;

Token is a class which represents chunks of code. A token can have the type comment, pp (preprocessor directive), keyword or code. Code is everything which is not a comment, pp or keyword. Note that there are no getter and setter methods: because operator>> and operator<< are friends of class token, we don't need any.

class token {
public:
    token() : _what(code) {}
protected:
    enum type {code, comment, pp, keyword};
    string _str;
    type _what;
    friend istream& operator>>(istream&, token&);
    friend ostream& operator<<(ostream&, const token&);
};

The function iskeyword() returns true if string s is a C++ keyword, false if not. It's possible you don't recognize some keywords, e.g. and. Those keywords can be used by programmers who don't have access to all ASCII characters. I've never seen code with such keywords though.

bool iskeyword(const string& s)
{
    static const char* keywords[] = {
        "and",
        "and_eq",
        "asm",
        "auto",
        "bitand",
        "bitor",
        "bool",
        "break",
        "case",
        "catch",
        "char",
        "class",
        "compl",
        "const",
        "const_cast",
        "continue",
        "default",
        "delete",
        "do",
        "double",
        "dynamic_cast",
        "else",
        "enum",
        "explicit",
        "export",
        "extern",
        "false",
        "float",
        "for",
        "friend",
        "goto",
        "if",
        "inline",
        "int",
        "long",
        "mutable",
        "namespace",
        "new",
        "not",
        "not_eq",
        "operator",
        "or",
        "or_eq",
        "private",
        "protected",
        "public",
        "register",
        "reinterpret_cast",
        "return",
        "short",
        "signed",
        "sizeof",
        "static",
        "static_cast",
        "struct",
        "switch",
        "template",
        "this",
        "throw",
        "true",
        "try",
        "typedef",
        "typeid",
        "typename",
        "union",
        "unsigned",
        "using",
        "virtual",
        "void",
        "volatile",
        "wchar_t",
        "while",
        "xor",
        "xor_eq"
    };

    for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(keywords) / sizeof(char*); i++)
        if (string(keywords[i]) == s)
            return true;

    return false;
}

The function containspp() returns true if string s contains a substring which is a preprocessor directive. A token of type pp can contain a string of the form "#...define", therefore, we have to find a substring.

bool containspp(const string& s)
{
    static const char* pptokens[] = {
        "define",
        "elif",
        "else",
        "endif",
        "error",
        "if",
        "ifdef",
        "ifndef",
        "include",
        "line",
        "pragma",
        "undef"
    };

    for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(pptokens) / sizeof(char*); i++)
        if (s.find(pptokens[i]) != string::npos)
            return true;

    return false;
}

Operator>> extracts a token from an input stream. It recognizes "//" and "/*...*/" comments, preprocessor directives of the form "#...define", and keywords. String constants are also recognized to avoid keywords to be highlighted in strings.

istream& operator>>(istream& is, token& t)
{
    t._str = "", t._what = token::code;
    int c = is.get();
    switch (c) {
        case '/':
            c = is.get();
            if (c == '*') {
                t._str = "/*";
                t._what = token::comment;
                while (1) {
                    c = is.get();
                    if (c == EOF)
                        return is.unget(), is.clear(), is;
                    if (c == '/') {
                        if (t._str.length() > 2 &&
                            t._str[t._str.length() - 1] == '*') {
                            return t._str += '/', is;
                        }
                    }
                    t._str += (char)c;
                }
            } else if (c == '/') {
                t._str = "//";
                t._what = token::comment;
                c = is.get();
                while (c != '\n' && c != EOF) {
                    t._str += (char)c;
                    c = is.get();
                }
                if (c == '\n') {
                    t._str += '\n';
                }
                return is;
            }
            t._str = '/';
            return is.unget(), is.clear(), is;
        case '#':
            t._str = '#';
            c = is.get();
            while (strchr(" \r\n\t", c)) {
                t._str += (char)c;
                c = is.get();
            }
            if (c == EOF)
                return is.unget(), is.clear(), is;
            while (strchr("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz", c)) {
                t._str += (char)c;
                c = is.get();
            }
            is.unget(), is.clear();
            if (containspp(t._str))
                t._what = token::pp;
            return is;
        case '\'':
        case '"': {
            char q = (char)c;
            t._str = q;
            while (1) {
                c = is.get();
                if (c == EOF)
                    return is.unget(), is.clear(), is;
                if (c == q) {
                    if (t._str.length() >= 2) {
                        if (!(t._str[t._str.length() - 1] == '\\' &&
                            t._str[t._str.length() - 2] != '\\'))
                            return t._str += q, is;
                    } else {
                        return t._str += q, is;
                    }
                }
                t._str += (char)c;                
            }
        }
        case 'a':
        case 'b':
        case 'c':
        case 'd':
        case 'e':
        case 'f':
        case 'g':
        case 'i':
        case 'l':
        case 'm':
        case 'n':
        case 'o':
        case 'p':
        case 'r':
        case 's':
        case 't':
        case 'u':
        case 'v':
        case 'w':
        case 'x':
            t._str += (char)c;
            c = is.get();
            while (isalpha(c) || isdigit(c) || c == '_') {
                t._str += (char)c;
                c = is.get();
            }
            is.unget(), is.clear();
            if (iskeyword(t._str))
                t._what = token::keyword;
            return is;
        case EOF:
            return is;
        default:
            t._str += (char)c;
            c = is.get();
            while (c != '/' && c != '#' && !strchr("abcdefgilmnoprstuvwx", c) &&
                c != '\'' && c != '"' && c != EOF) {
                t._str += (char)c;
                c = is.get();
            }
            is.unget(), is.clear();
            return is;
    }
}

The function html() replaces the characters '&', '<', '>' and '"' in string s by its HTML equivalents and replaces the tabs by spaces.

string html(const string& s)
{
    string s1;
    string::size_type i;
    for (i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) {
        switch (s[i]) {
            case '&':
                s1 += "&";
                break;
            case '<':
                s1 += "<";
                break;
            case '>':
                s1 += ">";
                break;
            case '"':
                s1 += """;
                break;
            case '\t':
                s1.append(tabsize, ' ');
                break;
            default:
                s1 += s[i];
        }
    }
    return s1;
}

Operator<< sends a token to an output stream. The code is straightforward.

ostream& operator<<(ostream& os, const token& t)
{
    if (t._what == token::code)
        cout << html(t._str);
    else if (t._what == token::comment)
        cout << "<span class=comment>" << html(t._str) << "</span>";
    else if (t._what == token::keyword)
        cout << "<span class=keyword>" << html(t._str) << "</span>";
    else if (t._what == token::pp)
        cout << "<span class=pp>" << html(t._str) << "</span>";
    else
        cout << html(t._str);
    return os;
}

This is the entry point of Cpphtml. All code will be wrapped in a <pre> element. By overloading operator>> and operator<<, the while loop is very short and clean. All output is sent to cout.

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    if (argc != 2 && argc != 3) {
        cout << "usage: cpphtml file [tab size]" << endl;
        return 0;
    }
    ifstream is(argv[1]);
    if (!is.good()) {
        cerr << "bad input file" << endl;
        return -1;
    }
    if (argc == 3) {
        tabsize = atoi(argv[2]);
        if (tabsize <= 0)
            tabsize = _TABSIZE;
    }
    cout << "<html>" << endl 
      << "<head>" << endl 
      << "<style>" << endl;
    cout << ".keyword{color:rgb(0,0,255);}" << endl;
    cout << ".comment{color:rgb(0,128,0);}" << endl;
    cout << ".pp{color:rgb(0,0,255);}" << endl;
    cout << "</style>" << endl << "<body>" << endl;
    cout << "<pre style=\"font-family:courier;font-size:10pt\">";
    token t;
    while (is >> t) {
        cout << t;
    }
    cout << "</pre>" << "</body>" 
         << endl << "</html>" << endl;
    return 0;
}

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here

About the Author

Mike Finnegan
Belgium Belgium
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Comments and Discussions

 
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    Spacing  Noise  Layout  Per page   
Generaldigrams/trigramsmembertoxcct31 Jan '06 - 22:53 
you don't take in account the digrams/trigrams C++ operators... Wink | ;)
 
this could be an improvement to do....

 

TOXCCT >>> GEII power
[toxcct][VisualCalc 2.20][VCalc 3.0 soon...]
GeneralRe: digrams/trigramsmemberJörgen Sigvardsson4 Feb '06 - 8:14 
Anyone using digrams and trigrams deserves no HTML :P
GeneralI want Line Numbermemberonjo14 Nov '05 - 17:49 
Java2html => Line Number (0)
 
c++2html => Line Number (x)
 
I want Line Number !!!
GeneralRe: I want Line Numbermemberq12345678914 Nov '05 - 22:11 
If you want line numbers, at first sight, I think you would have to do something like this:
 
1. add a variable "int lineno=0" to main()
 
2. write a function print(int *lineno, const token& t) which breaks up the token text in lines (text separated by '\n') and do what operator<< does for each line of text (can't be that difficult) and spit out each line in the desired format, for example:
 
printf("(%d) %s\n", *lineno, t._code);
 
and update lineno:
 
*lineno += lines.size().
 
3. call print(&lineno, t) in the loop instead of doing stdout << t;

GeneralAnother suggestion... not to the authormembergcampbell14 Oct '05 - 14:26 
This application is very useful, but you might consider this other alternative to... Big Grin | :-D
 
http://www.bedaux.net/cpp2html/[^]
GeneralThank you (and suggestion)memberPablo Aliskevicius1 May '05 - 4:29 
Thank you, you've saved me hours of coding.
A couple of suggestions:
 
1. Add another level of syntax coloring - user defined words (such as can be found in Visual Studio).
 
2. A change to the inserter:
 

ostream& operator<<(ostream& os, const token& t)
{
if (t._what == token::code)
os << html(t._str);
else if (t._what == token::comment)
os << "" << html(t._str) << "";
else if (t._what == token::keyword)
os << "" << html(t._str) << "";
else if (t._what == token::pp)
os << "" << html(t._str) << "";
else if (t._what == token::udf)
os << "" << html(t._str) << "";
else
os << html(t._str);
return os;
}

 
Using os instead of cout enables using string streams, which makes the tool suitable for syntax coloring just parts of a document in memory.
 

 
Pablo
GeneralRe: Thank you (and suggestion)memberq1234567892 May '05 - 3:41 
1. I'm not going to do this Smile | :)
 
2. Yes, you're right. It should have been like you say.
 
3. Recently, I discovered a bug: if you have code with types like "GLfloat", cpphtml will highlite the "float" in "GLfloat".
GeneralThanks, It's very goodmemberlynhoo2 Jun '04 - 15:49 
Thanks, It's very good

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