The IO Manipulators

The Format Flags

Each stream has associated with it a set of format flags that control the way information is formatted. The ios_base class declares a bitmask enumeration called fmtflags in which the following values are defined:

adjustfield

basefield

boolalpha

dec

fixed

floatfield

hex

internal

left

oct

right

scientific

showbase

showpoint

showpos

skipws

unitbuf

uppercase

  

These values are used to set or clear the format flags, using functions such as setf( ) and unsetf( ).

When the skipws flag is set, leading whitespace characters (spaces, tabs, and newlines) are discarded when performing input on a stream. When skipws is cleared, whitespace characters are not discarded.

When the left flag is set, output is left-justified. When right is set, output is right-justified. When the internal flag is set, a numeric value is padded to fill a field by inserting spaces between any sign or base character. If none of these flags is set, output is right-justified by default.

By default, numeric values are output in decimal. However, it is possible to change the number base. Setting the oct flag causes output to be displayed in octal. Setting the hex flag causes output to be displayed in hexadecimal. To return output to decimal, set the dec flag.

Setting showbase causes the base of numeric values to be shown. For example, if the conversion base is hexadecimal, the value 1F will be displayed as 0x1F.

By default, when scientific notation is displayed, the e is in lowercase. Also, when a hexadecimal value is displayed, the x is in lowercase. When uppercase is set, these characters are displayed in uppercase.

Setting showpos causes a leading plus sign to be displayed before positive values.

Setting showpoint causes a decimal point and trailing zeros to be displayed for all floating-point output—whether needed or not.

By setting the scientific flag, floating-point numeric values are displayed using scientific notation. When fixed is set, floating-point values are displayed using normal notation. When neither flag is set, the compiler chooses an appropriate method.

When unitbuf is set, the buffer is flushed after each insertion operation.

When boolalpha is set, Booleans can be input or output using the keywords true and false.

Since it is common to refer to the oct, dec, and hex fields, they can be collectively referred to as basefield. Similarly, the left, right, and internal fields can be referred to as adjustfield. Finally, the scientific and fixed fields can be referenced as floatfield.




C(s)C++ Programmer's Reference
C Programming on the IBM PC (C Programmers Reference Guide Series)
ISBN: 0673462897
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 539

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