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# std::endl

From cppreference.com
< cpp‎ | io‎ | manip

Defined in header `<ostream>` |  |
template< class CharT, class Traits > std::basic_ostream<charT,traits>& endl( std::basic_ostream<CharT, Traits>& os ); |  |

Inserts a endline character into the output sequence `os` and flushes it as if by calling os.put(os.widen('\n')) followed by os.flush().

This is an output-only I/O manipulator, it may be called with an expression such as out << std::endl for any `out` of type std::basic_ostream.

### [edit] Notes

This manipulator may be used to produce a line of output immediately, e.g. when displaying output from a long-running process, logging activity of multiple threads or logging activity of a program that may crash unexpectedly. An explicit flush of std::cout is also necessary before a call to std::system, if the spawned process performs any screen I/O (a common example is std::system("pause") on Windows). In most other usual interactive I/O scenarios, std::endl is redundant when used with std::cout because any input from std::cin, output to std::cerr, or program termination forces a call to std::cout.flush(). Use of std::endl in place of '\n', encouraged by some sources, may significantly degrade output performance.

In many implementations, standard output is line-buffered, and writing '\n' causes a flush anyway, unless std::cout.sync_with_stdio(false) was executed. In those situations, unnecessary `endl` only degrades the performance of file output, not standard output.

The code samples on this wiki follow Bjarne Stroustrup in flushing the standard output only where necessary.

When an incomplete line of output needs to be flushed, the std::flush manipulator may be used.

When every character of output needs to be flushed, the std::unitbuf manipulator may be used.

### [edit] Parameters

os | - | reference to output stream

### [edit] Return value

`os` (reference to the stream after manipulation)

### [edit] Example

With \n instead of endl, the output would be the same, but may not appear in real time.

Run this code

    #include <iostream>
    #include <chrono>

    template<typename Diff>
    void log_progress(Diff d)
    {
        std::cout << std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::milliseconds>(d).count()
                  << " ms passed" << std::endl;
    }

    int main()
    {
        std::cout.sync_with_stdio(false); // on some platforms, stdout flushes on \n
        volatile int sink = 0;

        auto t1 = std::chrono::high_resolution_clock::now();
        for (int j=0; j<5; ++j)
        {
            for (int n=0; n<10000; ++n)
                for (int m=0; m<20000; ++m)
                    sink += m*n; // do some work
            auto now = std::chrono::high_resolution_clock::now();
            log_progress(now - t1);
        }
    }

Output:

    487 ms passed
    974 ms passed
    1470 ms passed
    1965 ms passed
    2455 ms passed

### [edit] See also

unitbuf nounitbuf | controls whether output is flushed after each operation (function) [edit]
flush | flushes the output stream (function template) [edit]
flush | synchronizes with the underlying storage device (public member function of `std::basic_ostream`) [edit]

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