Quoting strings passed to an output stream

Question

This class allows me to quote strings being sent to an output stream:

class Quote{
public:
    friend std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const Quote& obj){
        obj.write(os);
      return os;
    }
    Quote() = delete;
    Quote(const string & text): text(text){}

    void write(ostream & os) const{
        os << default_quote_token << text << default_quote_token;
    }
private:
    const string & text;
};

Like this:

os << Quote(name);

It feels like a lot of work to avoid:

os << "\"" << name << "\"";

Is there a better solution?

Answer 1

In C++14, there's std::quoted. Some advantages it has over your approach:

• It works with both output and input streams

• You can specify the delimiter and escape character

• It's a stream manipulator, allowing it to be used seamlessly with operations while yours is a one-off class with zero interoperability

• It supports wide strings