Thinking In C++. Volume 2: Practical Programming

Manipulator	effect
setiosflags (fmtflags n)	Equivalent to a call to setf(n). The setting remains in effect until the next change, such as ios::setf( ).
resetiosflags(fmtflags n)	Clears only the format flags specified by n. The setting remains in effect until the next change, such as ios::unsetf( ).
setbase(base n)	Changes base to n, where n is 10, 8, or 16. (Anything else results in 0.) If n is zero, output is base 10, but input uses the C conventions: 10 is 10, 010 is 8, and 0xf is 15. You might as well use dec, oct, and hex for output.
setfill(char n)	Changes the fill character to n, such as ios::fill( ).
setprecision(int n)	Changes the precision to n, such as ios::precision( ).
setw(int n)	Changes the field width to n, such as ios::width( ).

If you’re doing a lot of formatting, you can see how using manipulators instead of calling stream member functions can clean up your code. As an example, here’s the program from the previous section rewritten to use the manipulators. (The D( ) macro is removed to make it easier to read.)^.

//: C04:Manips.cpp

// Format.cpp using manipulators

#include

#include

#include

using namespace std;

int main() {

  ofstream trc("trace.out");

  int i = 47;

  float f = 2300114.414159;

  char* s = "Is there any more?";

  trc << setiosflags(ios::unitbuf

           | ios::showbase | ios::uppercase

           | ios::showpos);

  trc << i << endl;

  trc << hex << i << endl

      << oct << i << endl;

  trc.setf(ios::left, ios::adjustfield);

  trc << resetiosflags(ios::showbase)

      << dec << setfill('0');

  trc << "fill char: " << trc.fill() << endl;

  trc << setw(10) << i << endl;

  trc.setf(ios::right, ios::adjustfield);

  trc << setw(10) << i << endl;

  trc.setf(ios::internal, ios::adjustfield);

  trc << setw(10) << i << endl;

  trc << i << endl; // Without setw(10)

  trc << resetiosflags(ios::showpos)

      << setiosflags(ios::showpoint)

      << "prec = " << trc.precision() << endl;

  trc.setf(ios::scientific, ios::floatfield);

  trc << f << resetiosflags(ios::uppercase) << endl;

  trc.setf(ios::fixed, ios::floatfield);

  trc << f << endl;

  trc << f << endl;

  trc << setprecision(20);

  trc << "prec = " << trc.precision() << endl;

  trc << f << endl;

  trc.setf(ios::scientific, ios::floatfield);

  trc << f << endl;

  trc.setf(ios::fixed, ios::floatfield);

  trc << f << endl;

  trc << f << endl;

  trc << setw(10) << s << endl;

  trc << setw(40) << s << endl;

  trc.setf(ios::left, ios::adjustfield);

  trc << setw(40) << s << endl;

} ///:~

You can see that a lot of the multiple statements have been condensed into a single chained insertion. Notice the call to setiosflags( ) in which the bitwise-OR of the flags is passed. This could also have been done with setf( ) and unsetf( ) as in the previous example^.

When using setw( ) with an output stream, the output expression is formatted into a temporary string that is padded with the current fill character if needed, as determined by comparing the length of the formatted result to the argument of setw( ). In other words, setw( ) affects the result string of a formatted output operation. Likewise, using setw( ) with input streams only is meaningful when reading strings, as the following example makes clear.

//: C04:InputWidth.cpp

// Shows limitations of setw with input

#include

#include

#include

#include

#include

#include

using namespace std;

int main() {

  istringstream is("one 2.34 five");

  string temp;

  is >> setw(2) >> temp;

  assert(temp == "on");

  is >> setw(2) >> temp;

  assert(temp == "e");

  double x;

  is >> setw(2) >> x;

  double relerr = fabs(x - 2.34) / x;

  assert(relerr <= numeric_limits::epsilon());

} ///:~

If you attempt to read a string, setw( ) will control the number of characters extracted quite nicely… up to a point. The first extraction gets two characters, but the second only gets one, even though we asked for two. That is because operator>>( ) uses white space as a delimiter (unless you turn off the skipws flag). When trying to read a number, however, such as x, you cannot use setw( ) to limit the characters read. With input streams, use only setw( ) for extracting strings^.

Creating manipulators