What exactly does stringstream do?

Question

I am trying to learn C++ since yesterday and I am using this document:http://www.cplusplus.com/files/tutorial.pdf (page 32) . I found a code in the document and I ran it. I

Answer 1

From C++ Primer:

The istringstream type reads a string, ostringstream writes a string, and stringstream reads and writes the string.

I come across some cases where it is both convenient and concise to use stringstream.

case 1

It is from one of the solutions for this leetcode problem. It demonstrates a very suitable case where the use of stringstream is efficient and concise.

Suppose a and b are complex numbers expressed in string format, we want to get the result of multiplication of a and b also in string format. The code is as follows:

string a = "1+2i", b = "1+3i";
istringstream sa(a), sb(b);
ostringstream out;

int ra, ia, rb, ib;
char buff;
// only read integer values to get the real and imaginary part of 
// of the original complex number
sa >> ra >> buff >> ia >> buff;
sb >> rb >> buff >> ib >> buff;

out << ra*rb-ia*ib << '+' << ra*ib+ia*rb << 'i';

// final result in string format
string result = out.str() 

case 2

It is also from a leetcode problem that requires you to simplify the given path string, one of the solutions using stringstream is the most elegant that I have seen:

string simplifyPath(string path) {
    string res, tmp;
    vector stk;
    stringstream ss(path);
    while(getline(ss,tmp,'/')) {
        if (tmp == "" or tmp == ".") continue;
        if (tmp == ".." and !stk.empty()) stk.pop_back();
        else if (tmp != "..") stk.push_back(tmp);
    }
    for(auto str : stk) res += "/"+str;
    return res.empty() ? "/" : res; 
 }

Without the use of stringstream, it would be difficult to write such concise code.