Custom manipulator for C++ iostream

Question

I\'d like to implement a custom manipulator for ostream to do some manipulation on the next item being inserted into the stream. For example, let\'s say I have a custom mani

Answer 1

Try this:

#include 
#include 

// The Object that we put on the stream.
// Pass in the character we want to 'quote' the next object with.
class Quote
{
    public:
        Quote(char x)
            :m_q(x)
        {}
    private:
        // Classes that actual does the work.
        class Quoter
        {
            public:
                Quoter(Quote const& quote,std::ostream& output)
                    :m_q(quote.m_q)
                    ,m_s(output)
                {}

                // The << operator for all types. Outputs the next object
                // to the stored stream then returns the stream. 
                template
                std::ostream& operator<<(T const& quoted)
                {
                    return m_s << m_q << quoted << m_q;
                }

            private:
                char            m_q;
                std::ostream&   m_s;
        };
        friend Quote::Quoter operator<<(std::ostream& str,Quote const& quote);

    private:
        char    m_q;
};

// When you pass an object of type Quote to an ostream it returns
// an object of Quote::Quoter that has overloaded the << operator for
// all types. This will quote the next object and the return the stream
// to continue processing as normal.
Quote::Quoter operator<<(std::ostream& str,Quote const& quote)
{
    return Quote::Quoter(quote,str);
}


int main()
{
    std::cout << Quote('"') << "plop" << std::endl;
}