How to accept empty value in boost::program_options

Question

I'm using boost::program_options library to process command line params. I need to accept a file name via -r option, in case if it is empty (-r given without params) I need to use stdin.

desc.add_options()
 ("replay,r", boost::program_options::value<std::string>(), "bla bla bla")

In this case boost wouldn't accept -r without params and throw an exception. default_value () option does not work as well as it would make library return value even if user didn't give -r option.

Any ideas how to work around?

Answer 1

Please use the implicit_value method, e.g

desc.add_options()
 ("replay,r", po::value<std::string>()->implicit_value("stdin"), "bla bla bla")

This makes the option accept either 0 or 1 token, and if no tokens are provided, it will act as if 'stdin' was provided. Of course, you can pick any other implicit value -- including empty string and '-' as suggested by mch.

Answer 2

You could try a trick with the multitoken and zero_tokens options:

using namespace std;
namespace po = boost::program_options;

vector<string> replay;

po::options_description desc("Allowed options");
desc.add_options()
    ("replay,r", po::value< vector<string> >(&replay)->multitoken()->zero_tokens(), "bla bla bla");

po::variables_map vm;        
po::store(po::parse_command_line(argc, argv, desc), vm);
po::notify(vm);    

if (vm.count("replay"))
{
  size_t s = vm["replay"].as< vector<string> >().size();
  if (s == 0)
    cout << "replay without args" << endl;
  else if (s == 1)
    cout << "replay with one arg" << endl;
  else
    cout << "replay with multiple args" << endl;
}
else
  cout << "replay not specified" << endl;

Then just count the number of elements in the replay vector. You'll want to throw an error if multiple arguments are passed to the replay option.