"fscanf" functionality ...

["Andrzej M. Ostruszka" <ostruszk@order.if.uj.edu.pl>]

Hi,

Since nowadays OCaml newbies are springing up like mushrooms after rain
here's another one :)).
Currently I'm converting some program into OCaml in which I've got to
read fixed length fields. In C I can use [f]scanf and I'm looking for
some nice equivalent - it doesn't need to be exactly the same
functionality. For now I'm seek_in'g to a specified position,
really_input'ing to the buf'fer and then:

    for j = 0 to var_len - 1 do
        let start = ref (j*field_len)
        and len = ref field_len in
        while buf.[!start] = ' ' do incr start; decr len; done;
	v.(j) <- int_of_string (String.sub buf !start !len)
    done;

(I've already learned that int_of_str "      1" will raise an exception :))
I'm sure there is better method - could someone guide me?

					Best regards
PS. There is one big benefit of this conversion -- I've found errors
in input data file which I've missed when using fscanf (ints of the form
'    0,5' :))
PPS. I'm sorry but I can't speak French and my English is far from being
satisfactory but I hope you'll bear with me :)).
-- 
    ____   _  ___
   /  | \_/ |/ _ \		Andrzej Marek Ostruszka
  / _ |     | (_) | Instytut Fizyki, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski (Cracow)
 /_/ L|_|V|_|\___/	(PGP <-- finger ostruszk@order.if.uj.edu.pl)