(C++) std::cout

'cout' stands for 'Character Output' [1]. It is a stream writing to the screen. Do do so, you use the stream out operator <<.

include <iostream>


int main()
{
  std::cout <<"Hello World" << std::endl;
}

In C, printf is used instead.

From [1] : How do you pronounce "cout"?

"cout" is pronounced "see-out". The "c" stands for "character" because iostreams map values to and from byte (char) representations.

The program does not know what cout means. Checklist:

Probably you tried to cout a class, instead of one of its member variables:

MyClass myClass; 
std::cout << myClass << std::endl; //Cannot cout a class
std::cout << myClass.getValue() << std::endl; //Correct

However using operator overloading on the stream out operator '<<' gives you the ability to define how your class will be cout-ed.

last edited (November 5, 2006) by bilderbikkel, Number of views: 11738, Current Rev: 22 (Diff)