Assigning cout to a variable name

Question

In ANSI C++, how can I assign the cout stream to a variable name? What I want to do is, if the user has specified an output file name, I send output there, otherwise, send i

Answer 1

I think Adam's on the right track but I don't think you can assign references - you need to use a pointer instead:

std::ofstream realOutFile;
std::ostream * poutFile;

if(outFileRequested)
{
    realOutFile.open("foo.txt", std::ios::out);
    poutFile = &realOutFile;
}
else
    poutFile = &std::cout;

you could then define a reference to be the value of the pointer, but it wouldn't be global

std::ostream & outFile = *poutFile;