data streams

Stream

A logical structure consisting of a sequence of characters that enables a program to communicate with the outside world.

cout

Standard output stream used by a program to write data to the monitor.

cin

Standard input stream used by a program to fetch data, typically from the keyboard.

endl

A predefined constant equivalent to \n that moves the cursor to a new line.

cin.fail()

Function used to detect if the stream is in an error state.

cin.clear()

Function that restores the stream from an error state to a normal state.

cin.ignore(n)

Function that ignores or skips n characters in the input stream.

Multiple Outputs Syntax

cout << expression1 << expression2 << ...; allows for outputting multiple expressions.

Multiple Inputs Syntax

cin >> var1 >> var2 >> ...; allows for sequential input into multiple variables.

Error handling in input streams

Includes checking the stream state with cin.fail() and clearing the error state with cin.clear().