Printf是一个函数而cout是一个变量。

当然，你可以把“something”写得更好一点，以保持维护:

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

class Something
{
    public:
        Something(int x, int y, int z) : a(x), b(y), c(z) { }
        int a;
        int b;
        int c;

        friend ostream& operator<<(ostream&, const Something&);

        void print() const { printf("%i, %i, %i\n", a, b, c); }
};

ostream& operator<<(ostream& o, const Something& s)
{
    o << s.a << ", " << s.b << ", " << s.c;
    return o;
}

int main(void)
{
    Something s(3, 2, 1);

    // Output with printf
    s.print(); // Simple as well, isn't it?

    // Output with cout
    cout << s << endl;

    return 0;
}

还有一个cout vs. printf的扩展测试，如果有人想做更多的测试，添加了一个'double'的测试(Visual Studio 2008，可执行文件的发布版本):

#include <stdio.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>

class TimedSection {
    char const *d_name;
    //timespec d_start;
    clock_t d_start;

    public:
        TimedSection(char const *name) :
            d_name(name)
        {
            //clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &d_start);
            d_start = clock();
        }
        ~TimedSection() {
            clock_t end;
            //clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &end);
            end = clock();
            double duration = /*1e3 * (end.tv_sec - d_start.tv_sec) +
                              1e-6 * (end.tv_nsec - d_start.tv_nsec);
                              */
                              (double) (end - d_start) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC;

            std::cerr << d_name << '\t' << std::fixed << duration * 1000.0 << " ms\n";
        }
};


int main() {
    const int iters = 1000000;
    char const *text = "01234567890123456789";
    {
        TimedSection s("cout with only endl");
        for (int i = 0; i < iters; ++i)
            std::cout << std::endl;
    }
    {
        TimedSection s("cout with only '\\n'");
        for (int i = 0; i < iters; ++i)
            std::cout << '\n';
    }
    {
        TimedSection s("printf with only '\\n'");
        for (int i = 0; i < iters; ++i)
            printf("\n");
    }
    {
        TimedSection s("cout with string constant and endl");
        for (int i = 0; i < iters; ++i)
            std::cout << "01234567890123456789" << std::endl;
    }
    {
        TimedSection s("cout with string constant and '\\n'");
        for (int i = 0; i < iters; ++i)
            std::cout << "01234567890123456789\n";
    }
    {
        TimedSection s("printf with string constant and '\\n'");
        for (int i = 0; i < iters; ++i)
            printf("01234567890123456789\n");
    }
    {
        TimedSection s("cout with some stuff and endl");
        for (int i = 0; i < iters; ++i)
            std::cout << text << "01234567890123456789" << i << std::endl;
    }
    {
        TimedSection s("cout with some stuff and '\\n'");
        for (int i = 0; i < iters; ++i)
            std::cout << text << "01234567890123456789" << i << '\n';
    }
    {
        TimedSection s("printf with some stuff and '\\n'");
        for (int i = 0; i < iters; ++i)
            printf("%s01234567890123456789%i\n", text, i);
    }
    {
        TimedSection s("cout with formatted double (width & precision once)");
        std::cout << std::fixed << std::scientific << std::right << std::showpoint;
        std::cout.width(8);
        for (int i = 0; i < iters; ++i)
            std::cout << text << 8.315 << i << '\n';
    }
    {
        TimedSection s("cout with formatted double (width & precision on each call)");
        std::cout << std::fixed << std::scientific << std::right << std::showpoint;

        for (int i = 0; i < iters; ++i)
            { std::cout.width(8);
              std::cout.precision(3);
              std::cout << text << 8.315 << i << '\n';
            }
    }
    {
        TimedSection s("printf with formatted double");
        for (int i = 0; i < iters; ++i)
            printf("%8.3f%i\n", 8.315, i);
    }
}

结果是:

cout with only endl    6453.000000 ms
cout with only '\n'    125.000000 ms
printf with only '\n'    156.000000 ms
cout with string constant and endl    6937.000000 ms
cout with string constant and '\n'    1391.000000 ms
printf with string constant and '\n'    3391.000000 ms
cout with some stuff and endl    9672.000000 ms
cout with some stuff and '\n'    7296.000000 ms
printf with some stuff and '\n'    12235.000000 ms
cout with formatted double (width & precision once)    7906.000000 ms
cout with formatted double (width & precision on each call)    9141.000000 ms
printf with formatted double    3312.000000 ms

cout<< "Hello";
printf("%s", "Hello"); 

两者都用于打印值。它们有完全不同的语法。c++两者都有，C 只有printf。

更多的差异: "printf"返回一个整数值(等于打印的字符数)，"cout"不返回任何东西

And.

Cout << "y = " << 7;不是原子的。

Printf ("%s = %d"， "y"， 7);是原子的。

Cout执行类型检查，printf不执行。

iostream中没有% d的等价物

对于原语，使用哪个原语可能并不重要。当你想输出复杂的对象时它才有用。

例如，如果你有一门课，

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

class Something
{
public:
        Something(int x, int y, int z) : a(x), b(y), c(z) { }
        int a;
        int b;
        int c;

        friend ostream& operator<<(ostream&, const Something&);
};

ostream& operator<<(ostream& o, const Something& s)
{
        o << s.a << ", " << s.b << ", " << s.c;
        return o;
}

int main(void)
{
        Something s(3, 2, 1);

        // output with printf
        printf("%i, %i, %i\n", s.a, s.b, s.c);

        // output with cout
        cout << s << endl;

        return 0;
}

现在，上面的内容可能看起来并不是很好，但是让我们假设您必须在代码中的多个地方输出这些内容。不仅如此，假设您添加了一个字段“int d”。使用cout，您只需要在一个地方更改它。然而，使用printf，你可能需要在很多地方改变它，不仅如此，你还需要提醒自己输出哪些。

尽管如此，使用cout，您可以减少大量用于维护代码的时间，不仅如此，如果您在新应用程序中重用对象“Something”，您实际上不必担心输出。

我引用一下:

在高层术语中，主要的区别是类型安全(cstdio 没有它)，性能(大多数iostreams实现都有 比cstdio慢)和可扩展性(iostreams允许 自定义输出目标和用户定义类型的无缝输出)。