Digit separators

Digit Separator

Numeric literals of more than a few digits are hard to read.

• Pronounce 7237498123.
• Compare 237498123 with 237499123 for equality.
• Decide whether 237499123 or 20249472 is larger.

C++14 define Simple Quotation Mark ' as a digit separator, in numbers and user-defined literals. This can make it easier for human readers to parse large numbers.

long long decn = 1'000'000'000ll;
long long hexn = 0xFFFF'FFFFll; 
long long octn = 00'23'00ll;
long long binn = 0b1010'0011ll;

Single quotes mark are ignored when determining its value.

Example:

• The literals 1048576,

1'048'576, 0X100000, 0x10'0000, and 0'004'000'000 all have the same value.

• The literals 1.602'176'565e-19 and 1.602176565e-19 have the same value.

The position of the single quotes is irrelevant. All the following are equivalent:

long long a1 = 123456789ll;
long long a2 = 123'456'789ll; 
long long a3 = 12'34'56'78'9ll;
long long a4 = 12345'6789ll;

It is also allowed in user-defined literals:

std::chrono::seconds tiempo = 1'674'456s + 5'300h;