std::fpos
| Defined in header  <ios> | ||
| template< class State > class fpos; | ||
Specializations of the class template std::fpos identify absolute positions in a stream or in a file. Each object of type fpos holds the byte position in the stream (typically as a private member of type std::streamoff) and the current shift state, a value of type State (typically std::mbstate_t).
The following specializations of std::fpos are provided:
| Type | Definition | 
| streampos | std::fpos<std::char_traits<char>::state_type> | 
| wstreampos | std::fpos<std::char_traits<wchar_t>::state_type> | 
| u8streampos(since C++20) | std::fpos<std::char_traits<char8_t>::state_type> | 
| u16streampos(since C++11) | std::fpos<std::char_traits<char16_t>::state_type> | 
| u32streampos(since C++11) | std::fpos<std::char_traits<char32_t>::state_type> | 
All specializations of fpos meet the DefaultConstructible, CopyConstructible, CopyAssignable, Destructible, and EqualityComparable requirements. 
If State is trivially copy constructible, fpos has a trivial copy constructor. 
If State is trivially copy assignable, fpos has a trivial copy assignment operator. 
If State is trivially destructible, fpos has a trivial destructor. 
Template parameter
| State | - | the type representing the shift state | 
| Type requirements | ||
| - Statemust meet the requirements of Destructible, CopyAssignable, CopyConstructible and DefaultConstructible. | ||
Member functions
| gets/sets the value of the shift state (public member function) | 
In addition, member and non-member functions are provided to support the following operations:
- A default constructor that stores an offset of zero and value-initializes the state object.
-  A non-explicit constructor that accepts an argument of type (possibly const) std::streamoff, which stores that offset and and value-initializes the state object. This constructor must also accept the special value std::streamoff(-1): the std::fposconstructed in this manner is returned by some stream operations to indicate errors.
-  Explicit conversion from (possibly const) fposto std::streamoff. The result is the stored offset.
-  operator== and operator!= that compare two objects of type (possibly const) std::fposand returns a value of type convertible to bool. p != q is equivalent to !(p == q).
-  operator+ and operator- such that, for an object pof type (possibly const)fpos<State>and an objectoof type (possibly const) std::streamoff
-  p + o has type fpos<State>and stores an offset that is the result of addingoto the offset ofp
-  o + p has a type convertible to fpos<State>and the result of the conversion is equal to p + o
-  p - o has type fpos<State>and stores an offset that is the result of subtractingofrom the offset ofp
 
-  p + o has type 
- operator+= and operator-= which can accept a (possibly const) std::streamoff and adds/subtracts it from the stored offset, respectively.
-  operator- which can subtract two objects of type (possibly const) std::fposproducing an std::streamoff, such that for two such objectspandq, p == q + (p - q)
Notes
std::streampos and std::wstreampos are required to be the same type because std::char_traits<char>::state_type and std::char_traits<wchar_t>::state_type are required to both be std::mbstate_t. C++98 had a self-contradictory statement that they may be different if the implementation supports no shift encoding in narrow-oriented iostreams but supports one or more shift encodings in wide-oriented streams, but that was corrected in C++03.
Some of the I/O streams member functions return and manipulate objects of member typedef pos_type. For streams, these member typedefs are provided by the template parameter Traits, which defaults to std::char_traits, which define their pos_types to be specializations of std::fpos. The behavior of the I/O streams library is implementation-defined when Traits::pos_type is not std::fpos<std::mbstate_t> (aka std::streampos or std::wstreampos).
Defect reports
The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.
| DR | Applied to | Behavior as published | Correct behavior | 
|---|---|---|---|
| P0759R1 | C++98 | specification was unclear and incomplete | cleaned up | 
| P1148R0 | C++11 | unclear what header defines u16streamposandu32streamposor what their definitions are | made clear | 
See also
| represents relative file/stream position (offset from fpos), sufficient to represent any file size (typedef) | |
| returns the output position indicator (public member function of std::basic_ostream<CharT,Traits>) | |
| sets the output position indicator (public member function of std::basic_ostream<CharT,Traits>) | |
| gets the file position indicator (function) |