Question

In C++, what is the difference between these pieces of code, and which one should be used? Which is fastest?

std::cout << std::endl;
std::cout << "\n";
std::cout << '\n';
fprintf(stdout, "\n");
printf("\n");
putchar('\n');
puts("");

Answer 1

I wouldn't worry too much about the speed, but of the choices, I would think that std::cout << std::endl would be the most versatile, portable (to other OSs) and localization setting friendly of the bunch.

Answer 2

I agree with rsmith's answer above.

I will add that the bottom 4 function calls are from the C standard library and will work in C or C++. The cout calls only work in C++. Additionally, I think you'll be required to use one of the printf variants if you want to have very specific control over formatting of the numbers that you're sending out.

Answer 3

The printf variants allow you to specify how many decimal places, etc - while I don't believe you can do that with cout. (At least, I've never seen it done.)

Answer 4

@farmdawgnation

You can place some fancy objects stuff somewhere between your cout and your output stuff and all those stream extraction operators... but I forgot since I've never learned C++ yet :(

Answer 5

stream insertion operators*

Answer 6

http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/iostream/ostream/

At the very bottom, they have some member functions for the ostream stuff.