Cannot figure out how to return a string with newlines

[cosj]

What is a good way to build a string from

• some string literals and
• some struct fields?

impl MyType{
  pub fn return_a_string(self: Self)->String { 
    let mut out = String::new();
    //out.push_str(&self.position.0.to_string());
    //out.push_str(&self.position.1.to_string());
    out.push_str("        (GmmiTextObject");
    out.push_str("          (GmmiObject \"\" 0");
    out.push_str("            MORE TEXT ");
       <SNIP>
    out.push_str(&self.name); // my data
    out.push_str("\" 0)");   
    out
  } 
}

I call this function in a loop and write it to a text file using write!

        for data in &self.data {
          write!(output, "{:?}\r\n", data.return_a_string());
        }

The problem is:

• It is all on one line (I tried adding \r\n but it just prints it out)
• It gets a " in front of each line

"        (GmmiTextObject          (GmmiObject \"\" 0            (Help \"\" \"\" \"\")            (GmmiOptionTable              <SNIP>          (Point 2520 4500) \"EQUIPMENT\" 0)"

[H2CO3]

Your strings don't end with newlines, hence no newlines will be printed out of the blue.

As for the quotes: {:?} prints a debug representation. You likely meant to use {} instead, which formats the value using Display.

[mmlinford]

Another thing to note is that String implements Write, so in your case you can use the writeln!() macro:

    pub fn return_a_string(self: Self) -> String {
        let mut out = String::new();
        writeln!(out, "        (GmmiTextObject");
        writeln!(out, "          (GmmiObject \"\" 0");
        writeln!(out, "            MORE TEXT ");
        out
    }