uint8_t iostream behavior

Question

Abstract: I was expecting the code: cout << uint8_t(0); to print \"0\", but it doesn\'t print anything.

Long version: When I try to stream uint8_t objects

Answer 1

As others have pointed out, uint8_t is streamed as an unsigned char. I've sometimes made use of bit fields from integer types that are streamed as, well, integers, to avoid having to cast or overload operator<<, but only when it doesn't waste space, like in the Pos struct below:

#include 

struct WasteAbyte {
    unsigned short has_byte_range:8;
};

struct Pos {
    unsigned short x:8;
    unsigned short y:8;
};

int main() {
    WasteAbyte W = {255};

    ++W.has_byte_range;

    std::cout << W.has_byte_range << std::endl;

    std::cout << sizeof(WasteAbyte) << std::endl;
    std::cout << sizeof(Pos) << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

Output:

0
2
2