Bold output in C++ - c++

Question

I'm building a dictionary, and when I print(output) the word-defenitions I'd like to print the word itself in bold.
when I print
cout<<word<<endl<<defention1<<defenition2<<endl;
I want the only "word" to be bold.
How can I do that?

Answer 1

Standard C++ uses various locales/character sets to display the output in various alphabets. However, the text itself is just that, text, without formatting.
If you want your output to be colored, or bold, or italicized, then you need to send an appropriate character code to your terminal.
However, this is implementation-defined and not guaranteed to work on all platforms.
For example, in Linux/UNIX you may use ANSI escape codes if your terminal supports them.
Example that works on my Mac OS X:
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
std::cout << "\e[1mBold\e[0m non-bold" << std::endl; // displays Bold in bold
}
If you want, you can go an extra step and create manipulators for turning on/off the bold-ing:
#include <iostream>
std::ostream& bold_on(std::ostream& os)
{
return os << "\e[1m";
}
std::ostream& bold_off(std::ostream& os)
{
return os << "\e[0m";
}
int main()
{
std::cout << bold_on << "bold" << bold_off << " non-bold" << std::endl;
}

Answer 2

The standart c++ can't output the text with any formatting. However, it's possible to output your string in bold, and even in different colours.
It depends on the operation system you're using and the terminal/console you're running in.
For example, in Window's console, there's no way to write a text in bold.
If you're using Linux/Unix, then, in most terminal emulators and in virtual console, you can write your string in bold, and even choose the color for it, just by adding \e[1m before your string, and \e[0m after your string to make sure that the other strings will be not bold.
\e is the escape symbol. In Vim, you can simply write it just by pressing ctrl + v + esc.
Here is a simple example for Linux/Unix (Mac is also Unix):
char esc_char = 27; // the decimal code for escape character is 27
cout << esc_char << "[1m" << "Hello Bold!" << esc_char << "[0m" << endl;

Answer 3

While I like the idea of a manipulator to bold some text (as #vsoftco has shown) I'm not particularly fond of the manipulators he has. Personally, I'd prefer the code look something like this:
std::cout << bold(word) << definition1 << definition2;
This avoids having a long-term state of the stream that needs to be manipulated. In doing so, it avoids the possibility of somebody manipulating the state incorrectly, such as leaving bolding active when that wasn't desired.
To support that, I'd write the manipulator more like this:
class bold {
std::string_view const &s;
public:
bold(std::string_view const &s) : s(s) {}
friend std::ostream &operator<<(std::ostream &os, bold const &b) {
os << "\x1b[1m" << b.s << "\x1b[0m";
return os;
}
};
Then we can write code using the manipulator like this:
int main() {
std::cout << bold("word") << " " << "definition\n";
}
I do hasten to add, however, that this is something of a stylistic choice. In particular, if you were starting with something on this order:
std::cout << bold_on << a << b << c << d << bold_off;
...where a, b, c and d are all different types, then #Vsoftco's approach will almost certainly be more attractive than this one.