Floating point format for std::ostream

std::cout << std::fixed << std::setw( 11 ) << std::setprecision( 6 ) << my_double;

You need to add

#include <iomanip>

You need stream manipulators

You may "fill" the empty places with whatever char you want. Like this:

std::cout << std::fixed << std::setw( 11 ) << std::setprecision( 6 ) 
          << std::setfill( '0' ) << my_double;

std::cout << boost::format("%11.6f") % my_double;

You have to #include <boost\format.hpp>

In general, you want to avoid specifying things like 11 and 6 at the point of output. That's physical markup, and you want logical markup; e.g. pressure, or volume. That way, you define in a single place how pressure or volume are formatted, and if that formatting changes, you don't have to search through out the program to find where to change the format (and accidentally change the format of something else). In C++, you do this by defining a manipulator, which sets the various formatting options, and preferrably restores them at the end of the full expression. So you end up writing things like:

std::cout << pressure << my_double;

Although I definitly wouldn't use it in production code, I've found the following FFmt formatter useful for quicky jobs:

class FFmt : public StateSavingManip
{
public:
    explicit            FFmt(
                            int                 width,
                            int                 prec = 6,
                            std::ios::fmtflags  additionalFlags 
                                    = static_cast<std::ios::fmtflags>(),
                            char                fill = ' ' );

protected:
    virtual void        setState( std::ios& targetStream ) const;

private:
    int                 myWidth;
    int                 myPrec;
    std::ios::fmtflags  myFlags;
    char                myFill;
};

FFmt::FFmt(
    int                 width,
    int                 prec,
    std::ios::fmtflags  additionalFlags,
    char                fill )
    :   myWidth( width )
    ,   myPrec( prec )
    ,   myFlags( additionalFlags )
    ,   myFill( fill )
{
    myFlags &= ~ std::ios::floatfield
    myFlags |= std::ios::fixed
    if ( isdigit( static_cast< unsigned char >( fill ) )
             && (myFlags & std::ios::adjustfield) == 0 ) {
        myFlags |= std::ios::internal
    }
}

void
FFmt::setState( 
    std::ios&           targetStream ) const
{
    targetStream.flags( myFlags )
    targetStream.width( myWidth )
    targetStream.precision( myPrec )
    targetStream.fill( myFill )
}

This allows writing things like:

std::cout << FFmt( 11, 6 ) << my_double;

And for the record:

class StateSavingManip
{
public:
    StateSavingManip( 
            StateSavingManip const& other );
    virtual             ~StateSavingManip();
    void                operator()( std::ios& stream ) const;

protected:
    StateSavingManip();

private:
    virtual void        setState( std::ios& stream ) const = 0;

private:
    StateSavingManip&   operator=( StateSavingManip const& );

private:
    mutable std::ios*   myStream;
    mutable std::ios::fmtflags
                        mySavedFlags;
    mutable int         mySavedPrec;
    mutable char        mySavedFill;
};

inline std::ostream&
operator<<(
    std::ostream&       out,
    StateSavingManip const&
                        manip )
{
    manip( out );
    return out;
}

inline std::istream&
operator>>(
    std::istream&       in,
    StateSavingManip const&
                        manip )
{
    manip( in );
    return in;
}

StateSavingManip.cc:

namespace {

//      We maintain the value returned by ios::xalloc() + 1, and not
//      the value itself.  The actual value may be zero, and we need
//      to be able to distinguish it from the 0 resulting from 0
//      initialization.  The function getXAlloc() returns this value
//      -1, so we add one in the initialization.
int                 getXAlloc();
int                 ourXAlloc = getXAlloc() + 1;

int
getXAlloc()
{
    if ( ourXAlloc == 0 ) {
        ourXAlloc = std::ios::xalloc() + 1;
        assert( ourXAlloc != 0 );
    }
    return ourXAlloc - 1;
}
}

StateSavingManip::StateSavingManip()
    :   myStream( NULL )
{
}

StateSavingManip::StateSavingManip(
    StateSavingManip const&
                        other )
{
    assert( other.myStream == NULL );
}

StateSavingManip::~StateSavingManip()
{
    if ( myStream != NULL ) {
        myStream->flags( mySavedFlags );
        myStream->precision( mySavedPrec );
        myStream->fill( mySavedFill );
        myStream->pword( getXAlloc() ) = NULL;
    }
}

void
StateSavingManip::operator()( 
    std::ios&           stream ) const
{
    void*&              backptr = stream.pword( getXAlloc() );
    if ( backptr == NULL ) {
        backptr      = const_cast< StateSavingManip* >( this );
        myStream     = &stream;
        mySavedFlags = stream.flags();
        mySavedPrec  = stream.precision();
        mySavedFill  = stream.fill();
    }
    setState( stream );
}