What is the << operator for in C++?

Question

I come from a C# and Java background into C++ and I\'m trying to get to understand the >> & << operators such as in

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Answer 1

In C and C++ the << operator means "shift left". In C++, when using the standard template library, the << and >> operators are overloaded to implement a streaming API.

The object std::cout does overload the << operator to use it as a conversion function (in this case to a string printed to the console).

Actually this:

int x = myFunction();
std::cout << x;

and this:

std::cout << myFunction();

are functionally the same (besides the definition of the temporary variable x).