which is more effective?

[john tindell]

which method is more effective, or faster, well better.

cout<<"line 1"<<endl<<"line 2";

or

cout<<"line 1\nline 2";

[parksie]

The second is faster.

Not only is it less function calls, it also has the newline embedded.

The main kicker, though, is the non-use of endl. That actually outputs a newline, then flushes the stream.

[CornedBee]

Therefore the second makes more efficient use of the buffer.

[Yonatan]

...But they slightly differ in their effect.
Try putting a getch(); after each one (assuming you use VC++) and testing them separately.

[CornedBee]

They do, but if one of the effects is unwanted then the other most probably is too. And you shouldn't rely on that.

Anyway:
cout<<"line 1"<<endl<<"line 2"<<endl;
and
cout<<"line 1\nline 2"<<endl;

have exactly the same effect with the second being much better.

[Yonatan]

Or just call cout.flush(); if you don't want the '\n' to be printed.

cout << endl;
// is the same as
cout << '\n';
cout.flush();