How to print (using cout) a number in binary form?

Question

I'm following a college course about operating systems and we're learning how to convert from binary to hexadecimal, decimal to hexadecimal, etc. and today we just learned how signed/unsigned numbers are stored in memory using the two's complement (~number + 1).

We have a couple of exercises to do on paper and I would like to be able to verify my answers before submitting my work to the teacher. I wrote a C++ program for the first few exercises but now I'm stuck as to how I could verify my answer with the following problem:

char a, b;

short c;
a = -58;
c = -315;

b = a >> 3;

and we need to show the binary representation in memory of a, b and c.

I've done it on paper and it gives me the following results (all the binary representations in memory of the numbers after the two's complement):

a = 00111010 (it's a char, so 1 byte)

b = 00001000 (it's a char, so 1 byte)

c = 11111110 11000101 (it's a short, so 2 bytes)

Is there a way to verify my answer? Is there a standard way in C++ to show the binary representation in memory of a number, or do I have to code each step myself (calculate the two's complement and then convert to binary)? I know the latter wouldn't take so long but I'm curious as to if there is a standard way to do so.

Answer 1

In C++20 you can use std::format to do this:

unsigned char a = -58;
std::cout << std::format("{:b}", a);

Output:

11000110

On older systems you can use the {fmt} library, std::format is based on. {fmt} and C++23 also provide the print function that makes this even easier and more efficient (godbolt):

unsigned char a = -58;
fmt::print("{:b}", a);

Disclaimer: I'm the author of {fmt} and C++20 std::format.

Answer 2

I have had this problem when playing competitive coding games online. Here is a solution that is quick to implement and is fairly intuitive. It also avoids outputting leading zeros or relying on <bitset>

std::string s;
do {
    s = std::to_string(r & 1) + s;
} while ( r>>=1 );

std::cout << s;

You should note however that this solution will increase your runtime, so if you are competing for optimization or not competing at all you should use one of the other solutions on this page.

Answer 3

Using the std::bitset answers and convenience templates:

#include <iostream>
#include <bitset>
#include <climits>

template<typename T>
struct BinaryForm {
    BinaryForm(const T& v) : _bs(v) {}
    const std::bitset<sizeof(T)*CHAR_BIT> _bs;
};

template<typename T>
inline std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const BinaryForm<T>& bf) {
    return os << bf._bs;
}

Using it like this:

auto c = 'A';
std::cout << "c: " << c << " binary: " << BinaryForm{c} << std::endl;
unsigned x = 1234;
std::cout << "x: " << x << " binary: " << BinaryForm{x} << std::endl;
int64_t z { -1024 };
std::cout << "z: " << z << " binary: " << BinaryForm{z} << std::endl;

Generates output:

c: A binary: 01000001
x: 1234 binary: 00000000000000000000010011010010
z: -1024 binary: 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111110000000000

Answer 4

The easiest way is probably to create an std::bitset representing the value, then stream that to cout.

#include <bitset>
...

char a = -58;
std::bitset<8> x(a);
std::cout << x << '\n';

short c = -315;
std::bitset<16> y(c);
std::cout << y << '\n';

Answer 5

Using old C++ version, you can use this snippet :

template<typename T>
string toBinary(const T& t)
{
  string s = "";
  int n = sizeof(T)*8;
  for(int i=n-1; i>=0; i--)
  {
    s += (t & (1 << i))?"1":"0";
  }
  return s;
}

int main()
{
  char a, b;

  short c;
  a = -58;
  c = -315;

  b = a >> 3;

  cout << "a = " << a << " => " << toBinary(a) << endl;
  cout << "b = " << b << " => " << toBinary(b) << endl;
  cout << "c = " << c << " => " << toBinary(c) << endl;
}

a = => 11000110
b = => 11111000
c = -315 => 1111111011000101

Answer 6

Similar to what is already posted, just using bit-shift and mask to get the bit; usable for any type, being a template (only not sure if there is a standard way to get number of bits in 1 byte, I used 8 here).

#include<iostream>
#include <climits>

template<typename T>
void printBin(const T& t){
    size_t nBytes=sizeof(T);
    char* rawPtr((char*)(&t));
    for(size_t byte=0; byte<nBytes; byte++){
        for(size_t bit=0; bit<CHAR_BIT; bit++){
            std::cout<<(((rawPtr[byte])>>bit)&1);
        }
    }
    std::cout<<std::endl;
};

int main(void){
    for(int i=0; i<50; i++){
        std::cout<<i<<": ";
        printBin(i);
    }
}

Answer 7

Reusable function:

template<typename T>
static std::string toBinaryString(const T& x)
{
    std::stringstream ss;
    ss << std::bitset<sizeof(T) * 8>(x);
    return ss.str();
}

Usage:

int main(){
  uint16_t x=8;
  std::cout << toBinaryString(x);
}

This works with all kind of integers.

Answer 8

Use on-the-fly conversion to std::bitset. No temporary variables, no loops, no functions, no macros.

Live On Coliru

#include <iostream>
#include <bitset>

int main() {
    int a = -58, b = a>>3, c = -315;

    std::cout << "a = " << std::bitset<8>(a)  << std::endl;
    std::cout << "b = " << std::bitset<8>(b)  << std::endl;
    std::cout << "c = " << std::bitset<16>(c) << std::endl;
}

Prints:

a = 11000110
b = 11111000
c = 1111111011000101

Answer 9

Here is the true way to get binary representation of a number:

unsigned int i = *(unsigned int*) &x;

Answer 10

#include <iostream> 
#include <cmath>       // in order to use pow() function
using namespace std; 

string show_binary(unsigned int u, int num_of_bits);

int main() 
{ 

  cout << show_binary(128, 8) << endl;   // should print 10000000
  cout << show_binary(128, 5) << endl;   // should print 00000
  cout << show_binary(128, 10) << endl;  // should print 0010000000

  return 0; 
}

string show_binary(unsigned int u, int num_of_bits) 
{ 
  string a = "";

  int t = pow(2, num_of_bits);   // t is the max number that can be represented

  for(t; t>0; t = t/2)           // t iterates through powers of 2
      if(u >= t){                // check if u can be represented by current value of t
          u -= t;
          a += "1";               // if so, add a 1
      }
      else {
          a += "0";               // if not, add a 0
      }

  return a ;                     // returns string
}

Answer 11

Is there a standard way in C++ to show the binary representation in memory of a number [...]?

No. There's no std::bin, like std::hex or std::dec, but it's not hard to output a number binary yourself:

You output the left-most bit by masking all the others, left-shift, and repeat that for all the bits you have.

(The number of bits in a type is sizeof(T) * CHAR_BIT.)

Answer 12

If you want to display the bit representation of any object, not just an integer, remember to reinterpret as a char array first, then you can print the contents of that array, as hex, or even as binary (via bitset):

#include <iostream>
#include <bitset>
#include <climits>

template<typename T>
void show_binrep(const T& a)
{
    const char* beg = reinterpret_cast<const char*>(&a);
    const char* end = beg + sizeof(a);
    while(beg != end)
        std::cout << std::bitset<CHAR_BIT>(*beg++) << ' ';
    std::cout << '\n';
}
int main()
{
    char a, b;
    short c;
    a = -58;
    c = -315;
    b = a >> 3;
    show_binrep(a);
    show_binrep(b);
    show_binrep(c);
    float f = 3.14;
    show_binrep(f);
}

Note that most common systems are little-endian, so the output of show_binrep(c) is not the 1111111 011000101 you expect, because that's not how it's stored in memory. If you're looking for value representation in binary, then a simple cout << bitset<16>(c) works.

Answer 13

Is this what you're looking for?

std::cout << std::hex << val << std::endl;