User Defined Literals in C++

A literal is used for representing a fixed value in a program. A literal could be anything in a code like a, b, c2. , 'ACB', etc.

Similarly, User-Defined Literals (UDL) provides literals for a variety of built-in types that are limited to integer, character, floating-point, string, boolean, and pointer. In simple terms, they combine values with units.

Examples of literal for built-in types: 

// Examples of classical literals for built-in types.
42        // int
2.4      // double
3.2F     // float
'w'      // char
32ULL    // Unsigned long long
0xD0     // Hexadecimal unsigned
"cd"    // C-style string(const char[3]")

Why do we use UDLs? 

Let us consider the below example to understand the need for UDLs.

long double Weight = 2.3; //  pounds? kilograms? grams?
// With UDL, we attach units to the values which has
// following advantages
// 1) The code becomes readable.
// 2) Conversion computations are done at compile time. 
weight = 2.3kg;
ratio = 2.3kg/1.2lb;

To compute the above ratio it is necessary to convert them to the same units. UDLs help us to overcome unit translation costs. We can define user-defined literals for user-defined types and the new form of literals for built-in types. They help to make constants in code more readable. The value of UDLs is substituted with the actual value defined in the code by the compiler at compile time. UDLs don't save much coding time, but more calculations can be shifted to compile-time for faster execution.

Examples of User-Defined Literals:

"hello"s            // string
4.3i                // imaginary
101000111101001b    // binary
53h                // hours
234093270497230409328432840923849 // extended-precision

UDLs are treated as a call to a literal operator. Only suffix form is supported. The name of the literal operator is operator " " followed by the suffix.

Example 1: 

// C++ code to demonstrate working of 
// user defined literals (UDLs)
#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

// user defined literals

// KiloGram
long double operator"" _kg(long double x)
{
    return x * 1000;
}

// Gram
long double operator"" _g(long double x) { return x; }

// MiliGram
long double operator"" _mg(long double x)
{
    return x / 1000;
}

// Driver code
int main()
{
    long double weight = 3.6_kg;
    cout << weight << endl;
    cout << setprecision(8) << (weight + 2.3_mg) << endl;
    cout << (32.3_kg / 2.0_g) << endl;
    cout << (32.3_mg * 2.0_g) << endl;
    return 0;
}

3600
3600.0023
16150
0.0646

Example 2: 

// C++ program to demonstrate UDL with constexpr
#include <complex>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

// imaginary literal
constexpr complex<double> operator"" _i(long double d)
{
    return complex<double>{ 0.0, static_cast<double>(d) };
}

int main()
{
    complex<double> z = 3.0 + 4.0_i;
    complex<double> y = 2.3 + 5.0_i;
    cout << "z + y = " << z + y << endl;
    cout << "z * y = " << z * y << endl;
    cout << "abs(z) = " << abs(z) << endl;
    return 0;
}

z + y = (5.3,9)
z * y = (-13.1,24.2)
abs(z) = 5

What is an imaginary literal?

The literal complex<double> is the real part that deals with the imaginary part your_argument

Syntax:

constexpr complex< double > operator"" _i( long double your_argument );

your_argument - the value of the imaginary number. Here, constexpr is used to enable compile-time evaluation. 

Restriction: UDL can only work with the following parameters:

char const*
unsigned long long
long double
char const*, std::size_t
wchar_t const*, std::size_t
char16_t const*, std::size_t
char32_t const*, std::size_t

But return value can be of any type.
If you like GeeksforGeeks and would like to contribute, you can also write an article using write.geeksforgeeks.org or mail your article to [email protected]. See your article appearing on the GeeksforGeeks main page and help other Geeks.