The std Namespace

The std:: before cout is required when we use names that we’ve brought into the program by the preprocessing directive #include <iostream>. The notation std::cout specifies that we are using a name, in this case cout, that belongs to namespace std. The names cin (the standard input stream) and cerr (the standard error stream)—introduced in Chapter 1—also belong to namespace std. Namespaces are an advanced C++ feature that we discuss in depth in Chapter 21, Other Topics. For now, you should simply remember to include std:: before each mention of cout, cin and cerr in a program. This can be cumbersome—the next example introduces using declarations and the using directive, which will enable you to omit std:: before each use of a name in the std namespace.