What is the name of the "<<" and ">>" operators?

Question

I'm wondering if there is a standard name for the "<<" and ">>" operators? This is mostly in the context of teaching C++ and using those operators as part of stream input/output. If I need to read code or prompt for student responses (such as cout << "Hello";), I'm not sure how to verbalize those symbols. Is there a convention when reading them out loud?

Improved version of this question: How do you read the "<<" and ">>" symbols out loud?

Solution 1

When not overloaded, left-shift and right-shift and some people call them that even when used with streams, but insertion and extraction is a lot more common in that context. They are also sometimes informally called put to and get from. IIRC, Stroustrup favoured that last form.

Solution 2

According to cplusplus.com's documentation:

This operator (<<) applied to an output stream is known as insertion operator.

...

And from the same website

This operator (>>) applied to an input stream is known as extraction operator.

...

Solution 3

In his book "The C++ Programming Language", C++11, bjarne stroustrup has called << "put to" and >> "get from".

Hope this helps

Solution 4

<< is the insertion operator. Note when you write

cout << "Some text";

The arrows are pointing to the stream. You're inserting the text into the stream.

>> is the extraction operator. When you write

cin >> some_var;

You're extracting a value from the stream.

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Comments

[Daniel R. Collins]

So, for example: How would you verbalize cout << "Hello";?

[Daniel R. Collins]

So, for example: How would you verbalize cout << "Hello";?

[Jon Hanna]

"Insert Hello to c-out", or "put Hello to c-out"

[Joseph Sible-Reinstate Monica]

I'd probably say ”write Hello to cout”.

[Daniel R. Collins]

So: How would you verbalize cout << "Hello";?

[Daniel R. Collins]

I'm afraid this doesn't answer the question.

[Daniel R. Collins]

I'm afraid this doesn't answer the question.

[Carcigenicate]

"c-out some text". Since insertion is the most common you'll do on cout (at least in my experience), it's kind of implied. For a streams where both insertions and extractions are common, you might say "Insert/extract some text into/from the stream"