I have a an object which contains a ptime and an int mask. The mask tells me that regardless of the value stored inside the ptime object, I should display the ptime as such.

If you look at the code below (set_fmt function), I set the format of a date_facet object according to some bitmasks.

I now want to use this date_facet together with my ptime to output the ptime value to an outputstream?

I don't want it to change the outputstream's settings for ALL ptime values, just for this single instance

All the examples use a date_facet allocated on the heap, and use std::cout.imbue(...), whereas I'm looking for functionality similar to strftime... is this possible?

eg:

class expiration

{

enum expiry_mask

{

expiry_null = 0x00,

expiry_year = 0x01,

expiry_month = 0x02,

expiry_day = 0x04,

expiry_hour = 0x08,

expiry_minute = 0x10,

expiry_second = 0x20,

expiry_date = 0x07, // yyyy/mm/dd

expiry_time = 0x38, // hh:nn:ss

expiry_all = 0x3f // yyyy/mm/dd hh:nn:ss

};

boost::posix_time::ptime desig;

int32_t desig_mask;
boost::gregorian::date_facet fmt;

public:

void expiration::set_fmt(const int32_t mask)
{

   switch(mask & expiry_date) // strip off time part of mask
   {

   case expiry_null:
   fmt.format("");

   break;
   case expiry_year | expiry_month | expiry_day: // display as "dd Mmm yy"

   fmt.format("%d %b %y");
   break;

   case expiry_year | expiry_month: // display as "Mmm yy"

   fmt.format("%b %y");
   break;

   case expiry_year: // display as "yy"

   fmt.format("%y");
   break;

   default:
   break;

   }
}

... some other stuff here ...

};

Thanks

Steve