On this page:
string-port?
open-input-bytes
open-input-string
open-output-bytes
open-output-string
get-output-bytes
get-output-string
13.1.6 String Ports🔗ℹ

A string port reads or writes from a byte string. An input string port can be created from either a byte string or a string; in the latter case, the string is effectively converted to a byte string using string->bytes/utf-8. An output string port collects output into a byte string, but get-output-string conveniently converts the accumulated bytes to a string.

Input and output string ports do not need to be explicitly closed. The file-position procedure works for string ports in position-setting mode.

+Byte Strings also provides information on bytestrings.

procedure

(string-port? p)  boolean?

  p : port?
Returns #t if p is a string port, #f otherwise.

Added in version 6.0.1.6 of package base.

procedure

(open-input-bytes bstr [name])  (and/c input-port? string-port?)

  bstr : bytes?
  name : any/c = 'string
Creates an input string port that reads characters from bstr (see Byte Strings). Modifying bstr afterward does not affect the byte stream produced by the port. The optional name argument is used as the name for the returned port.

Examples:
> (define sp (open-input-bytes #"(apples 42 day)"))
> (define sexp1 (read sp))
> (first sexp1)

'apples

> (rest sexp1)

'(42 day)

> (read-line (open-input-bytes
              #"the cow jumped over the moon\nthe little dog\n"))

"the cow jumped over the moon"

+Strings also provides information on strings.

procedure

(open-input-string str [name])  (and/c input-port? string-port?)

  str : string?
  name : any/c = 'string
Creates an input string port that reads bytes from the UTF-8 encoding (see Encodings and Locales) of str. The optional name argument is used as the name for the returned port.

Examples:
> (define sp (open-input-string "(λ (x) x)"))
> (read sp)

'(λ (x) x)

> (define names (open-input-string "Günter Harder\nFrédéric Paulin\n"))
> (read-line names)

"Günter Harder"

> (read-line names)

"Frédéric Paulin"

procedure

(open-output-bytes [name])  (and/c output-port? string-port?)

  name : any/c = 'string
Creates an output string port that accumulates the output into a byte string. The optional name argument is used as the name for the returned port.

Examples:
> (define op1 (open-output-bytes))
> (write '((1 2 3) ("Tom" "Dick") ('a 'b 'c)) op1)
> (get-output-bytes op1)

#"((1 2 3) (\"Tom\" \"Dick\") ((quote a) (quote b) (quote c)))"

> (define op2 (open-output-bytes))
> (write "Hi " op2)
> (write "there" op2)
> (get-output-bytes op2)

#"\"Hi \"\"there\""

> (define op3 (open-output-bytes))
> (write-bytes #"Hi " op3)

3

> (write-bytes #"there" op3)

5

> (get-output-bytes op3)

#"Hi there"

procedure

(open-output-string [name])  (and/c output-port? string-port?)

  name : any/c = 'string
The same as open-output-bytes.

Examples:
> (define op1 (open-output-string))
> (write '((1 2 3) ("Tom" "Dick") ('a 'b 'c)) op1)
> (get-output-string op1)

"((1 2 3) (\"Tom\" \"Dick\") ((quote a) (quote b) (quote c)))"

> (define op2 (open-output-string))
> (write "Hi " op2)
> (write "there" op2)
> (get-output-string op2)

"\"Hi \"\"there\""

> (define op3 (open-output-string))
> (write-string "Hi " op3)

3

> (write-string "there" op3)

5

> (get-output-string op3)

"Hi there"

procedure

(get-output-bytes out    
  [reset?    
  start-pos    
  end-pos])  bytes?
  out : (and/c output-port? string-port?)
  reset? : any/c = #f
  start-pos : exact-nonnegative-integer? = 0
  end-pos : exact-nonnegative-integer? = #f
Returns the bytes accumulated in the string port out so far in a freshly allocated byte string (including any bytes written after the port’s current position, if any). The out port must be an output string port produced by open-output-bytes (or open-output-string) or a structure whose prop:output-port property refers to such an output port (transitively).

If reset? is true, then all bytes are removed from the port, and the port’s position is reset to 0; if reset? is #f, then all bytes remain in the port for further accumulation (so they are returned for later calls to get-output-bytes or get-output-string), and the port’s position is unchanged.

The start-pos and end-pos arguments specify the range of bytes in the port to return; supplying start-pos and end-pos is the same as using subbytes on the result of get-output-bytes, but supplying them to get-output-bytes can avoid an allocation. The end-pos argument can be #f, which corresponds to not passing a second argument to subbytes.

Examples:
> (define op (open-output-bytes))
> (write '((1 2 3) ("Tom" "Dick") ('a 'b 'c)) op)
> (get-output-bytes op)

#"((1 2 3) (\"Tom\" \"Dick\") ((quote a) (quote b) (quote c)))"

> (get-output-bytes op #f 3 16)

#" 2 3) (\"Tom\" "

> (get-output-bytes op #t)

#"((1 2 3) (\"Tom\" \"Dick\") ((quote a) (quote b) (quote c)))"

> (get-output-bytes op)

#""

procedure

(get-output-string out)  string?

  out : (and/c output-port? string-port?)
Returns (bytes->string/utf-8 (get-output-bytes out) #\uFFFD).

Examples:
> (define i (open-input-string "hello world"))
> (define o (open-output-string))
> (write (read i) o)
> (get-output-string o)

"hello"