How to write 'n' copies of a character to ostream like in python

Question

In python, the following instruction: print 'a'*5 would output aaaaa. How would one write something similar in C++ in conjunction with std::ostreams in order to avoid a for construct?

Answer 1

In C++20 you'll be able to use std::format to do this:

std::cout << std::format("{:a<5}", "");

Output:

aaaaa

In the meantime you can use the {fmt} library, std::format is based on. {fmt} also provides the print function that makes this even easier and more efficient (godbolt):

fmt::print("{:a<5}", "");

Disclaimer: I'm the author of {fmt} and C++20 std::format.