What is the use of iostream in c plus plus programming?

Answer 1

iostream.h is deprecated and should not be used. It was originally shipped with early versions of C++ which used CFront to produce C compatible code from C++ source. Later, when C++ was standardised, iostream.h became iostream (without the .h extension), but many implementers shipped with both versions. However, iostream.h is not standards compliant and should not be used today. In most cases the file can simply be deleted unless you have non-compliant legacy code that requires it.

Answer 2

The iostream class library is used to perform input and output to various devices and files. The most common instances are stdout as cout, stdin as cin, and stderr as cerr, but the library can be used with any file, or device that the operating system can represent as a file.

Answer 3

The iostream header file gives access to user-defined input and output streams as well as the global console stream objects std::cin, std::cout and std::cerr. These global streams allow input and output to be redirected via the command line and are synonymous with stdin, stdout and stderr in C. Unless otherwise specified from the command line (or altered programmatically), std::cin represents the console keyboard, while std::cout and std::cerr represent the console display.

Answer 4

Iostream is an abbreviation of input/output stream. When you include iostream in any of your files (using #include <iostream>), you are signifying to your compiler that the iostream standard header file (which should be a read-only file) should be inserted into your file at that point. When you do so you invoke a cascade of external dependencies, including istream, ostream, ios, xlocnum, climits, cmath, cstdio, cstdlib and streambuf header files, amongst many others. All are required to some degree by iostream.

By including iostream in your files, you expose functions and data types pertinent to streaming input and output, which includes console input and output (scanf() and printf() being the primary functions, as well as the cin, cout and cerr streams). There are few programs that do not make use of both input and output, therefore iostream is usually included at some point in your project, typically in the pre-compilation header. In some cases you may not require the full set of functions or data types exposed by iostream, but you can filter out what you need or don't need via conditional compilation.

For more information, consult your IDE documentation regarding iostream programming.

Answer 5

Iostream stands for Input/Output stream used in C and C++ languages.