Print leading zeros with C++ output operator

Here we will see how to print leading zeros as output in C++. We know that if we directly put some zeros before some numeric values, then all zeros are discarded, and only exact numbers are printed.

Printing Leading Zeros with C++ Output Operator

We can manipulate the output sequence in C++ by utilizing the iomanip header. In this header, we have two manipulators, setw() and setfill(). The setw() function is used to create space between the previous text and the current text, and then we use setfill(char) to add characters to that field.

Example of Printing Leading Zeros

In this example, we will see how we can print leading zeros with a C++ Output Operator:

#include<iostream>
#include<iomanip>
using namespace std;

int main() {
   int number = 256;
   // set 5 times leading 0 to 256
   cout << setw(8) << setfill('0') << number;
}

Following is the output of the code:

00000256