Question

I’m using VC++ to disassemble a very simple program I’ve written:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    for(int i = 0; i < 11; i++)
    {
        cout << i << endl;
    }
    return 0;
} 

I was hoping to shed some light on how cout works, but upon inspection, the resulting ASM points to an external source (I assume):

EXTRN __imp_?cout@std@@3V?$basic_ostream@DU?$char_traits@D@std@@@1@A

Is there a way to identify, from the above line, where specifically this points to, and how to access it? Even still, how to read the above line?

Answer 1

You don’t have to disassemble that. The MS sources of the streams are part of Visual Studio installation. See: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\crt\src”