'printf' vs. 'cout' in C++

Question

What is the difference between printf() and cout in C++?

Answer 1

I would like say that extensibility lack of printf is not entirely true:
In C, it is true. But in C, there are no real classes.
In C++, it is possible to overload cast operator, so, overloading a char* operator and using printf like this:

Foo bar;
...;
printf("%s",bar);

can be possible, if Foo overload the good operator. Or if you made a good method. In short, printf is as extensible as cout for me.

Technical argument I can see for C++ streams (in general... not only cout.) are:

• Typesafety. (And, by the way, if I want to print a single '\n' I use putchar('\n')... I will not use a nuke-bomb to kill an insect.).

• Simpler to learn. (no "complicated" parameters to learn, just to use << and >> operators)

• Work natively with std::string (for printf there is std::string::c_str(), but for scanf?)

For printf I see:

• Easier, or at least shorter (in term of characters written) complex formatting. Far more readable, for me (matter of taste I guess).

• Better control of what the function made (Return how many characters where written and there is the %n formatter: "Nothing printed. The argument must be a pointer to a signed int, where the number of characters written so far is stored." (from printf - C++ Reference)

• Better debugging possibilities. For same reason as last argument.

My personal preferences go to printf (and scanf) functions, mainly because I love short lines, and because I don't think type problems on printing text are really hard to avoid. The only thing I deplore with C-style functions is that std::string is not supported. We have to go through a char* before giving it to printf (with the std::string::c_str() if we want to read, but how to write?)