Introduced by: C++14

Until C++14, standard C++ allowed to define numbers in:

• decimal notation:

  int number = 7;

• hexadecimal notation:

  int number = 0x7;

• octal notation:

  int number = 07;

Anyhow, without special compiler extensions it was not allowed to define numbers in binary format. It changes from C++14. The core language supports binary literals. It’s possible to define integer with 0b or 0B prefix to represent binary number.

int number = 0b0111;

It’s worth noticing that the GCC compiler has offered the possibility to define binary numbers since GCC 4.3.

It may be not the most crucial feature of C++ standard, but I believe there are cases when use of binary representation will improve readability of the code.