Is there a printf converter to print in binary format?

Question

I can print with printf as a hex or octal number. Is there a format tag to print as binary, or arbitrary base?

I am running gcc.

printf(\"%d %x %o         


        

Answer 1

You could use a small table to improve speed¹. Similar techniques are useful in the embedded world, for example, to invert a byte:

const char *bit_rep[16] = {
    [ 0] = "0000", [ 1] = "0001", [ 2] = "0010", [ 3] = "0011",
    [ 4] = "0100", [ 5] = "0101", [ 6] = "0110", [ 7] = "0111",
    [ 8] = "1000", [ 9] = "1001", [10] = "1010", [11] = "1011",
    [12] = "1100", [13] = "1101", [14] = "1110", [15] = "1111",
};

void print_byte(uint8_t byte)
{
    printf("%s%s", bit_rep[byte >> 4], bit_rep[byte & 0x0F]);
}

¹ I'm mostly referring to embedded applications where optimizers are not so aggressive and the speed difference is visible.