C++ Output

std::cout

The cout object (pronounced "see-out"), together with the << operator, is used to display output values and print text to the standard output device. The cout object is defined in the iostream header file, and is part of the std standard namespace. You can use the cout object in your program as many times as you desire.

To use the cout object, you must include the iostream class into your program by adding the #include <iostream> statement to the beginning of your program.

The syntax of the cout object is:

std::cout << var_name;
or
std::cout << "Some string";

Or if you add a statement showing that you are using the std namespace (see alternative examples below), then you can shorten the syntax to:

cout << var_name;
or
cout << "Some string";

Example

#include <iostream>

int main() {
    
    // print value to output device
    std::cout << "Hello World!";
    
    // return normal
    return 0;
}

Alternatively, you can specify using the namespace std (which stands for standard) with using namespace std; statement, which allows you to shorten the function call to cout instead of having to type out std::cout each time you want to output a value, for example:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
    
    // print value to output device
    cout << "Hello World!"
    
    // return normal
    return 0;
}

The cout can output/print values as well as strings, such as in the following example the value of an integer is printed to the console window:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
    
    // instantiate an integer type variable and assign it a value of 24
    int tempCount = 24;

    // print value to output device
    cout << "Value of tempCount is " << tempCount;
    
    // return normal
    return 0;
}

You can also add an End Line command ( endl ) to the cout statement, so that it prints a new line return at that location:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
    
    // add endl to end of string, and print value to output device
    cout << "Hello World!" << endl;
    
    // add endl to middle and end of string, to produce multiline text output, and print value to output device
    cout << "Hello World!" << endl << "This is a test." << endl;
	
    // return normal
    return 0;
}

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading, I hope you found this blog post (tutorial) educational and helpful.

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