How to print superscript 3 in C-CodePudding

I am looking for a way to print superscript 3, I googled a lot and I found a way to print superscript 2:

const char expo_square = 253;

void main () {
    std::cout << expo_square;
    return;
}

After some more googling, I came across the Alt Keycode for superscript 3, which is:

Alt   0179

The problem with this is that while compiling the C source file:

const char expo_cube = 0179;

void main () {
    std::cout << expo_cube;
    return;
}

I get an error:
3d.cpp(18): error C2041: illegal digit '9' for base '8'
(don't mind the file name)

So I tried the next logical thing, since the Alt Keycode for superscript 2 is 253, I tried Alt Keycode 254, but all I ended up getting was:

■

So I wanted to ask:
How can I print superscript 3 in C ?

CodePudding user response：

Unicode superscript 3, or ³ is \u00b3 in utf-16 and \xc2\xb3 in UTF-8.

Hence, this would work with cout, assuming your console is UTF8.

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    std::cout << "\xc2\xb3" << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

To set your console in UTF-8 mode, you can do it in a number of ways, each is OS dependent, if needed at all. On Windows, you can run chcp 65001 from the command prompt before invoking your code:

If you can barely make out ³ getting printed above, let's zoom in closer:

Alternatively, you can do this in code via a Windows API, SetConsoleOutputCP

SetConsoleOutputCP(65001);

So this works as well from a Windows program without having to do any environment changes before running the program.

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
    SetConsoleOutputCP(65001);
    std::cout << "\xc2\xb3" << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

CodePudding user response：

If you prefix the expression with a 0, the compiler considers this value to be represented in the octal radix. Values in octal radix must be in the range of [0,7]. The value 9 in the 0179 expression is outside of the octal radix range.

Try the following solution to print superscript 3:

std::cout << "x\u00b3" << std::endl;

The result: x³

References

How to print subscripts/superscripts on the screen in C ?

CodePudding user response：

Expanding on the question- and answer scopes this function can be used to get superscripts for any power (may be useful to someone):

std::string supow(int pow)
{
    std::string r{}, t{};
    if (pow<0) { r="\u207b"; pow*=-1; } else r.clear();
    t=itoa(pow); //stringize the pow for easier access to digits
    for (auto c:t)
    {
        switch(c-48)
        {
            case 0: r ="\u2070"; break;
            case 1: r ="\u00b9"; break;
            case 2: r ="\u00b2"; break;
            case 3: r ="\u00b3"; break;
            case 4: r ="\u2074"; break;
            case 5: r ="\u2075"; break;
            case 6: r ="\u2076"; break;
            case 7: r ="\u2077"; break;
            case 8: r ="\u2078"; break;
            case 9: r ="\u2079"; break;
        }
    }
    return r;
}