d_heyzie

ive seen alot of c++ examples using printf over cout. Can someone please tell me the difference between the two? and, if there are differences what are the advantages and disadvantages of printf?

Polyphemus_

The main difference is that printf is the C-way of printing formatted text and numbers, cout is the object-oriented, C++-way of printing formatted text.

Another difference is that cout is usually safer, as you can make the following mistake with printf:
Which can output weird stuff, or crash your program (or both).

d_heyzie

should i bother to learn to use printf?? it looks complicated cause of all of the % and stuff.

DaWei

Just depends on what you call complicated, I guess. Have you tried to format cout with iomanip, et.al.? Do you ever plan to use C?

__________________
Abstraction doesn't make it impossible to write bad code; it makes it possible to write superior code.
Contributor's Corner: Grumpy on C++ Exceptions DaWei on Pointers

d_heyzie

no i dont think i plan to ever use C.

Xyhm

I know of no reason to use printf when programming in C++ (but I'm not an expert, if anyone knows a reason I'd like to hear it).

But I think it's a good idea to learn the basics of printf (and C syntax in general) anyway. Even if you plan to program in C++, you never know when knowledge of C will prove useful. Perhaps one day you'd like to understand an algorithm you can only find a C version of, or something.

nnxion

Well I can't think of a reason either, fprintf might prove useful in some situations, but one can often use stringstreams, which in my opinion is a lot more graceful.
It doesn't hurt to know how printf works. I would not use it in C++ if I can avoid it.

__________________
"Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for."
-- Socrates

alphonso

I still use printf, even in c++ environment, simply because I started programming in C, and it's kinda hard to stray from what you've learned, at least in my case. You can still use printf in the c++ environment by using stdio.h as a header file.

__________________
"The most incomprehensible idea about the universe is that it is comprehensible" - Albert Einstein

Polyphemus_

@alphonso: You should include <cstdio>, stdio.h is deprecated in C++.

alphonso

Ok, I'll do that. Thanks polyphemus

__________________
"The most incomprehensible idea about the universe is that it is comprehensible" - Albert Einstein