Basic Input / Output in C++
C++ comes with libraries that provide us with many ways for
performing input and output. In C++ input and output are
performed in the form of a sequence of bytes or more commonly
known as streams.
Input and output in C++ are handled through a stream, which is a fancy word
to indicate a mode of means of data transmission. This could mean a network,
keyboard, file or screen. Streams for input/output (I/O) in C++ are actually in a
class called iostream.
Input Stream: If the direction of flow of bytes is from the
device(for example, Keyboard) to the main memory then this
process is called input.
Output Stream: If the direction of flow of bytes is opposite,
i.e. from main memory to device( display screen ) then this
process is called output.
Header files available in C++ for Input/Output operations
are:
1. iostream: iostream stands for standard input-output stream.
This header file contains definitions of objects like cin, cout,
cerr, etc.
2. iomanip: iomanip stands for input-output manipulators. The
methods declared in these files are used for manipulating
streams. This file contains definitions of setw, setprecision, etc.
3. fstream: This header file mainly describes the file stream. This
header file is used to handle the data being read from a file as
input or data being written into the file as output.
4. bits/stdc++: This header file includes every standard library.
In programming contests, using this file is a good idea, when
you want to reduce the time wasted in doing chores; especially
when your rank is time sensitive. To know more about this
header file refer this article.
In C++ after the header files, we often use ‘using namespace
std;‘. The reason behind it is that all of the standard library
definitions are inside the namespace std. As the library functions
are not defined at global scope, so in order to use them we
use namespace std. So, that we don’t need to write STD:: at every
line (eg. STD::cout etc.).
The two instances cout in C++ and cin in C++ of iostream class
are used very often for printing outputs and taking inputs
respectively. These two are the most basic methods of taking
input and printing output in C++. To use cin and cout in C++ one
must include the header file iostream in the program.
This article mainly discusses the objects defined in the header
file iostream like the cin and cout.
Standard output stream (cout): Usually the standard output
device is the display screen. The C++ cout statement is the
instance of the ostream class. It is used to produce output on
the standard output device which is usually the display screen.
The data needed to be displayed on the screen is inserted in
the standard output stream (cout) using the insertion
operator(<<).
C++
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
char sample[] = "GeeksforGeeks";
cout << sample << " - A computer science portal for geeks";
return 0;
}
Output:
GeeksforGeeks - A computer science portal for geeks
In the above program, the insertion operator(<<) inserts the
value of the string variable sample followed by the string “A
computer science portal for geeks” in the standard output
stream cout which is then displayed on the screen.
standard input stream (cin): Usually the input device in a
computer is the keyboard. C++ cin statement is the instance of
the class istream and is used to read input from the standard
input device which is usually a keyboard.
The extraction operator(>>) is used along with the
object cin for reading inputs. The extraction operator extracts
the data from the object cin which is entered using the
keyboard.
C++
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int age;
cout << "Enter your age:";
cin >> age;
cout << "\nYour age is: " << age;
return 0;
}
Input :
18
Output:
Enter your age:
Your age is: 18
The above program asks the user to input the age. The object cin
is connected to the input device. The age entered by the user is
extracted from cin using the extraction operator(>>) and the
extracted data is then stored in the variable age present on the
right side of the extraction operator.
Un-buffered standard error stream (cerr): The C++ cerr is
the standard error stream that is used to output the errors.
This is also an instance of the iostream class. As cerr in C++ is
un-buffered so it is used when one needs to display the error
message immediately. It does not have any buffer to store the
error message and display it later.
The main difference between cerr and cout comes when you
would like to redirect output using “cout” that gets redirected
to file if you use “cerr” the error doesn’t get stored in file.(This
is what un-buffered means ..It cant store the message)
C++
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
cerr << "An error occurred";
return 0;
}
Output:
An error occurred
buffered standard error stream (clog): This is also an
instance of ostream class and used to display errors but unlike
cerr the error is first inserted into a buffer and is stored in the
buffer until it is not fully filled. or the buffer is not explicitly
flushed (using flush()). The error message will be displayed on
the screen too.
C++
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
clog << "An error occurred";
return 0;
}
Output:
An error occurred
