How to Print a Binary Number in C++
By droj
I needed to print out a binary number in C++ for debugging purposes, so I searched for “c++ print binary number”.
*sigh*
I am frankly amazed that every hit on the first page of results led to variations of the same solution: a for loop that checked each bit by shifting a '1' and then building a string or printing 1's and 0's.
Talk about "reinventing the wheel"...
for (int bit = 0 ; bit <= 32 ; bit++) {
if (value & (1 << bit)) {
// do something with "1"
}
else {
// do something with "0"
}
}
… or something to that effect.
It’s sad how many times this little bit of logic has been written, and re-written, and re-written, just to get a binary string representation of a number!
Thankfully, we live in an age where we have C Plus Plus and the STL. Because no one should ever have had to write the above code since probably sometime in the 80’s!
The std::bitset class does this for us:
int value = 12345; cout << bitset<32>(value).to_string() << endl;
This might only save 20 lines of code or so, but it will save time writing it and maintaining it. The less code the better!
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platinumOwl4 2 years ago
I am person attempting to learn how to program. Maybe you could give me some advice. During your brief search you made a startling discovery there are many variation of the same information. This can really confuse a novice. Thanks for the information.