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From: Paul Meyerholtz <pholtz@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: cout << null pointers
Date: 2000/07/08
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Newsgroups: comp.std.c++

I have found an inconsistent output by various compilers of the following:

char * p = 0;
cout * q = "";

cout << p << "\n\n";
cout << q;

Most compilers seem to handle "cout << q" without a problem.  (But I
have heard that Visual C++ 6 fails this test).

However, the handling of "cout << p" seems to cause problems for most
computers, with results from segment faults to garbage output. 
(CodeWarrior for the Mac, which I use, outputs a couple of garbage
characters, but always the same ones).

Why is the output of p and q different?

Is there anything in the standard about this?  Should cout check for the
null pointer? 

Paul

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