cout or printf?

which is better to use?

If your trying to adhere to standard C++, the choice is obvious.

printf is still covered by the C++ standard. I like streams type safety (never forget the formatter) and extensibility (can use directly with own classes), but printf has more terse sematics (for example, limiting number of decimal places with output).

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printf is still covered by the C++ standard.

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Wow, I didn't know that. Ya see you learn something new here everyday.

Why do you often hear people say that using printf is a mix of C and C++ and should not be done? Because I have had several people here tell me that.

I don't see anything wrong with mixing C and C++. C++ was designed with backward compatibility for a reason. If you are gonna take all the bad parts of C, you may as well take advantage of the good parts as well.

I agree 100% with silent strike.
I don't know where I'd by without the c string functions (ie: strcat, strtok, strcpy, etc.)
I use c functions all the time right beside C++, i think people who strictly adhere to one or the other are severly limiting themselves in the power and versatility of their programs, as well as their creativity.

adhering to c++ allows (read: forces) you to use c++'s object-oriented features. it can help where c might bog you down to its lowest denominator. ie:

Code:

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string temp;
temp = "string";
cout << string << setw(5) << string << endl;
printf("%s\n",string.c_str());

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the first three statements are somewhat encapsulated. the details are somewhat hidden. when you reach printf, which knows nothing about classes, you must use a special function of the string class to maintain compatability.

i'm not against using both at once. c++ was built for backwards-compatability. i just believe that object-oriented programming works best when the objects interact without the C functions that are unaware of classes.

ok thanks alot for your gelp, guys!

ok thanks for your help!

yes but i here that you should try to use c++ functions and were you need to do somethign like strlen, use it.

>which is better to use?
My rule of thumb is to use the iostream with C++ and the stdio with C.

-Prelude

Just don't use both. It can lead to some weird problems.