C++ i/o operator

Question

In c++ i/o is performed using i/o operators instead of i/o functions. plz explain. what is the reason?

Sam Hobbs · Answer

If you are saying that I/O must be performed using operators then that is not true. Operators such as  > are just conveniences; they are not requirements and they do not prevent us from doing anything. For example try: std::wcout std::wcout.write(LHello again
 12); They both work. Note that the  > operators provide formatting which can be a significant convenience but if your requirements are more advanced than what the  > operators can provide then you just need to learn more about how C++ works.

Vulpes · Answer

I don't think I've ever seen an 'official' answer to this question but I can think of three possible reasons: 1. > are briefer to write than function names such as output and input respectively. 2. It's easy to use operators multiple times in the same line of code. 3. You can overload these operators to provide 'inserters' or 'extractors' for your own classes which work in an analogous way to the basic stream operations. EDIT: I've just checked Bjarne Stroustrup's book The C++ Programming Language (3rd edition) and it says in section 21.2 Output that the use of functions would be repetitive. Overloading the operator It also goes on to say: This style can be used as long as x is of a type for which operator I can't find any explanation about the use of >> for input but logically if you use an operator for output you should do the same for input. So it looks like my answer on this was not wide of the mark.