For example only and not the actual code:
stringstream ss;
ss << " world!";
string hello("Hello");
// insert hello to beginning of ss ??
Thanks for all the responses, I also found this code, which works:
ostringstream& insert( ostringstream& oss, const string& s )
{
streamsize pos = oss.tellp();
oss.str( s + oss.str() );
oss.seekp( pos + s.length() );
return oss;
}