How to print __int128 in g++?

Question

I am using the GCC built-in type __int128 for a few things in my C++ program, nothing really significant, at least not enough to justify to use BigInt library only for that and, yet, enough to prevent to remove it totally.

My problem comes when I run into the printing parts my classes, here is a minimal example:

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
  __int128 t = 1234567890;

  std::cout << t << std::endl;

  return t;
}

Commenting out the std::cout line will make this code to compile nicely with g++, but having it will cause the following error message:

int128.c: In function ‘int main()’:
int128.c:7:13: error: ambiguous overload for ‘operator<<’ (operand types are ‘std::ostream {aka std::basic_ostream<char>}’ and ‘__int128’)
   std::cout << t << std::endl;
             ^
int128.c:7:13: note: candidates are:
In file included from /usr/include/c++/4.9/iostream:39:0,
                 from int128.c:1:
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:108:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& (*)(std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type&)) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>] <near match>
       operator<<(__ostream_type& (*__pf)(__ostream_type&))
       ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:108:7: note:   no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘__int128’ to ‘std::basic_ostream<char>::__ostream_type& (*)(std::basic_ostream<char>::__ostream_type&) {aka std::basic_ostream<char>& (*)(std::basic_ostream<char>&)}’
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:117:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ios_type& (*)(std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ios_type&)) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ios_type = std::basic_ios<char>] <near match>
       operator<<(__ios_type& (*__pf)(__ios_type&))
       ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:117:7: note:   no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘__int128’ to ‘std::basic_ostream<char>::__ios_type& (*)(std::basic_ostream<char>::__ios_type&) {aka std::basic_ios<char>& (*)(std::basic_ios<char>&)}’
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:127:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(std::ios_base& (*)(std::ios_base&)) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>] <near match>
       operator<<(ios_base& (*__pf) (ios_base&))
       ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:127:7: note:   no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘__int128’ to ‘std::ios_base& (*)(std::ios_base&)’
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:166:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(long int) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>]
       operator<<(long __n)
       ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:170:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(long unsigned int) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>]
       operator<<(unsigned long __n)
       ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:174:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(bool) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>]
       operator<<(bool __n)
       ^
In file included from /usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:609:0,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/iostream:39,
                 from int128.c:1:
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/ostream.tcc:91:5: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(short int) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>]
     basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::
     ^
In file included from /usr/include/c++/4.9/iostream:39:0,
                 from int128.c:1:
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:181:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(short unsigned int) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>]
       operator<<(unsigned short __n)
       ^
In file included from /usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:609:0,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/iostream:39,
                 from int128.c:1:
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/ostream.tcc:105:5: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(int) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>]
     basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::
     ^
In file included from /usr/include/c++/4.9/iostream:39:0,
                 from int128.c:1:
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:192:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(unsigned int) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>]
       operator<<(unsigned int __n)
       ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:201:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(long long int) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>]
       operator<<(long long __n)
       ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:205:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(long long unsigned int) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>]
       operator<<(unsigned long long __n)
       ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:220:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(double) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>]
       operator<<(double __f)
       ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:224:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(float) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>]
       operator<<(float __f)
       ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:232:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(long double) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>]
       operator<<(long double __f)
       ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:245:7: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(const void*) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__ostream_type = std::basic_ostream<char>] <near match>
       operator<<(const void* __p)
       ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:245:7: note:   no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘__int128’ to ‘const void*’
In file included from /usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:609:0,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/iostream:39,
                 from int128.c:1:
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/ostream.tcc:119:5: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>& std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::operator<<(std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__streambuf_type*) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::__streambuf_type = std::basic_streambuf<char>] <near match>
     basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>::
     ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/ostream.tcc:119:5: note:   no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘__int128’ to ‘std::basic_ostream<char>::__streambuf_type* {aka std::basic_streambuf<char>*}’
In file included from /usr/include/c++/4.9/iostream:39:0,
                 from int128.c:1:
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:493:5: note: std::basic_ostream<char, _Traits>& std::operator<<(std::basic_ostream<char, _Traits>&, unsigned char) [with _Traits = std::char_traits<char>]
     operator<<(basic_ostream<char, _Traits>& __out, unsigned char __c)
     ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:488:5: note: std::basic_ostream<char, _Traits>& std::operator<<(std::basic_ostream<char, _Traits>&, signed char) [with _Traits = std::char_traits<char>]
     operator<<(basic_ostream<char, _Traits>& __out, signed char __c)
     ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:482:5: note: std::basic_ostream<char, _Traits>& std::operator<<(std::basic_ostream<char, _Traits>&, char) [with _Traits = std::char_traits<char>]
     operator<<(basic_ostream<char, _Traits>& __out, char __c)
     ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/ostream:476:5: note: std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>& std::operator<<(std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>&, char) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>]
     operator<<(basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>& __out, char __c)
     ^

Yes, I know, a lot of lines to explain that __int128 is just not properly handled...

Is there a simple way to get __int128 to be printed by the iostream as any other numeric types ?

EDIT: For those who are still confusing C and C++, yes, I read the question: how to print __uint128_t number using gcc? But, this was for C and not for C++ as I am asking now.

Answer 1

If you don't need any of the fancy formatting options, writing your own << operator is trivial. Formally, I suspect that writing one for __int128_t would be considered undefined behavior, but practically, I think it would work, up until the library starts providing actual support for it (at which point, you'd retire your conversion operator).

Anyway, something like the following should work:

std::ostream&
operator<<( std::ostream& dest, __int128_t value )
{
    std::ostream::sentry s( dest );
    if ( s ) {
        __uint128_t tmp = value < 0 ? -value : value;
        char buffer[ 128 ];
        char* d = std::end( buffer );
        do
        {
            -- d;
            *d = "0123456789"[ tmp % 10 ];
            tmp /= 10;
        } while ( tmp != 0 );
        if ( value < 0 ) {
            -- d;
            *d = '-';
        }
        int len = std::end( buffer ) - d;
        if ( dest.rdbuf()->sputn( d, len ) != len ) {
            dest.setstate( std::ios_base::badbit );
        }
    }
    return dest;
}

Note that this is just a quicky, temporary fix, until the time the g++ library supports the type. It counts on 2's complement, wrap around on overflow, for __int128_t, but I'd be very surprised if that wasn't the case (formally, it's undefined behavior). If not, you'll need to fix up the initialization of tmp. And of course, it doesn't handle any of the formatting options; you can add as desired. (Handling padding and the adjustfield correctly can be non-trivial.)

Answer 2

I would recommend against overloading operator<< for __int128_t. The reason is that whenever you see cout << x for some integer type, you'd expect that all kinds of manipulators like std::hex or std::setw should also work. The most important guideline when overloading operators is: "do as the ints do".

As an alternative, I would recommend using a decimal_string(__int128_t) function that you can use as cout << decimal_string(x); in your code. For the string conversion, you can use the algorithm from any of the C-related Q&As. This makes it clear that you have special code for your 128-bit ints. Whenever the Standard Library upgrades to 128-bit support, you can drop it (and it's easy to grep for these functions).

Answer 3

The stock cout does not handle __int128, but you may extends it with your own function.

For starter, code something like this:

std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, __int128 t) {
    // TODO: Convert t to string
    return os << str;
}

There are many solution on SO to convert 128 bit number to string, I'll not repeat here.

About library compatibility in comment:

You only need to roll your own function if the standard library does not provide such handler. Once the library support the type, you should then see a conflict when building, something like [ note: built-in candidate operator<< ], go try that with int64_t.

Answer 4

A deceptively simple approach

std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& o, const __int128& x) {
    if (x == std::numeric_limits<__int128>::min()) return o << "-170141183460469231731687303715884105728";
    if (x < 0) return o << "-" << -x;
    if (x < 10) return o << (char)(x + '0');
    return o << x / 10 << (char)(x % 10 + '0');
}