#### 21.2.48 get-output-stream-string [Function]

`get-output-stream-string` string-output-stream ⇒ string

#### Arguments and Values::

string-output-stream—a stream.

string—a string.

#### Description::

Returns a string containing, in order, all the characters that have been output to string-output-stream. This operation clears any characters on string-output-stream, so the string contains only those characters which have been output since the last call to get-output-stream-string or since the creation of the string-output-stream, whichever occurred most recently.

#### Examples::

     (setq a-stream (make-string-output-stream)
            a-string "abcdefghijklm") ⇒  "abcdefghijklm"
     (write-string a-string a-stream) ⇒  "abcdefghijklm"
     (get-output-stream-string a-stream) ⇒  "abcdefghijklm"
     (get-output-stream-string a-stream) ⇒  ""

#### Side Effects::

The string-output-stream is cleared.

#### Exceptional Situations::

The consequences are undefined if stream-output-string is closed.

The consequences are undefined if string-output-stream is a stream that was not produced by make-string-output-stream.

The consequences are undefined if string-output-stream was created implicitly by with-output-to-string or format.

#### See Also::

make-string-output-stream