Why does cout << not print inputs from left to right?

Question

the following code:

myQueue.enqueue('a');
myQueue.enqueue('b');
cout << myQueue.dequeue() << myQueue.dequeue();

prints "ba" to the console

while:

myQueue.enqueue('a');
myQueue.enqueue('b');
cout << myQueue.dequeue();
cout << myQueue.dequeue();

prints "ab" why is this?

It seems as though cout is calling the outermost (closest to the ;) function first and working its way in, is that the way it behaves?

Answer 1

There's no sequence point with the << operator so the compiler is free to evaluate either dequeue function first. What is guaranteed is that the result of the second dequeue call (in the order in which it appears in the expression and not necessarily the order in which it is evaluated) is <<'ed to the result of <<'ing the first (if you get what I'm saying).

So the compiler is free to translate your code into some thing like any of these (pseudo intermediate c++). This isn't intended to be an exhaustive list.

auto tmp2 = myQueue.dequeue();
auto tmp1 = myQueue.dequeue();
std::ostream& tmp3 = cout << tmp1;
tmp3 << tmp2;

or

auto tmp1 = myQueue.dequeue();
auto tmp2 = myQueue.dequeue();
std::ostream& tmp3 = cout << tmp1;
tmp3 << tmp2;

or

auto tmp1 = myQueue.dequeue();
std::ostream& tmp3 = cout << tmp1;
auto tmp2 = myQueue.dequeue();
tmp3 << tmp2;

Here's what the temporaries correspond to in the original expression.

cout << myQueue.dequeue() << myQueue.dequeue();
|       |               |    |               |
|       |____ tmp1 _____|    |_____ tmp2 ____|
|                       |
|________ tmp3 _________|