Hmm...don't really know how to describe it well, but here goes:
a namespace is a space of names
When you are using C++ and type using namespace std, that means that you are using stuff in the namespace that starts with std. If you didn't use that line, and you wanted to do something like a cin statement, you'd have to type something like std::cin.
cin and cout are both in the std namespace. The using command there lets you know you are using stuff in the std namespace and not any other namespace. There could be another cin and cout in foo::cin or something.
Ok, now for another example for namespaces:
namespace this{ int foo = 12 }
namespace that{ float foo = 6.1828 }
using namespace this cout << foo
using namespace that cout << foo
^^one of those would output 12 and the other would output 6.1828 because the namespace used is different in each.
Question to Krusty and other programmers
Posted - 03/01/2004 : 11:16:57
