how to display char value as string in c++?

Question

So I have a simple char variable which is as follows:

char testChar = 00000;

Now, my goal is to display not the unicode character, but the value itself (which is "00000") in the console. How can I do that? Is it possible to convert it to a string somehow?

`00000` is the same as `0` which is the same as `\0`. So no. — juanchopanza, Oct 19 '15 at 21:55
The value is 0, regardless of how you spell it. If you want to preserve the spelling you want `string test = "00000"; `. — Alan Stokes, Oct 19 '15 at 21:56
Possible duplicate of [How can I pad an int with leading zeros when using cout << operator?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1714515/how-can-i-pad-an-int-with-leading-zeros-when-using-cout-operator) — cadaniluk, Oct 19 '15 at 22:02

tmlen · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-19T22:36:53.320

To print the char's integer value:

std::cout << static_cast<int>(testChar) << std::endl;
// prints "0"

Without the cast, it calls the operator<< with char argument, which prints the character.

char is an integer type, and only stores the number, not the format ("00000") used in the definition. To print a number with padding:

#include <iomanip>
std::cout << std::setw(5) << std::setfill(' ') << static_cast<int>(testChar) << std::endl;
// prints "00000"

See http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/io/manip/setfill .

To convert it to a std::string containing the formatted character number, you can use stringstream:

#include <iomanip>
#include <sstream>
std::ostringstream stream;
stream << std::setw(5) << std::setfill(' ') << static_cast<int>(testChar);
std::string str = stream.str();
// str contains "00000"

See http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/io/basic_stringstream .

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 19 '15 at 22:34

You are confusing values with representations. The character's value is the number zero. You can express this as "zero", "0", "00", or "1-1" if you want, but it's the same value and it's the same character.

If you want to output the string "0000" if a character's value is zero, you can do it like this:

char a;
if (a==0)
   std::cout << "0000";

how to display char value as string in c++?

2 Answers2