What does the namespace std add? (C++)

Question

I am currently working in c++, I want to know everything that using namespace std adds. I already know the basic ones, like cout and cin. However when I run my program without using namespace std, It doesn't work (I do add std:: before the cout command). But I am wondering what else I need to add std:: before.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Here is my code:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

class MyClass{
public:
    void setName(string x){
        name = x;
    }
    string getName(){
        return name;
    }
private:
    string name;
};

int main()
{
    MyClass mc;
    mc.setName("WASSSSSUUUPP!!! \n");
    std::cout << mc.getName();
}

Also If anyone has a link to a page about the namespace std that would be awesome! — killarviper, Jun 22 '14 at 06:17
@killarviper chris just did that, here's all the header files listed on that page: http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/header I'm sure you can find and there — PeterT, Jun 22 '14 at 06:22
If it seems a bit overwhelming, that's precisely why this is too broad. — chris, Jun 22 '14 at 06:23

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 22 '14 at 07:59

1 - All the entities (variables, types, constants, and functions) of the standard C++ library are declared within the std namespace. using namespace std; introduces direct visibility of all the names of the std namespace into the code.

ref: http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/namespaces/

2 - Namespaces in C++ are most often used to avoid naming collisions. Although namespaces are used extensively in recent C++ code, most older code does not use this facility. For example, the entire C++ standard library is defined within namespace std, but before standardization many components were originally in the global namespace.

ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namespace#Use_in_common_languages

Dr. Stroustrup recommends avoiding namespace usage in header files. — Vector, Jun 23 '14 at 01:20
@Vector, I agree, [that is considered bad](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1452721/why-is-using-namespace-std-considered-bad-practice). — garakchy, Jun 24 '14 at 00:14

What does the namespace std add? (C++)

1 Answers1