Why cout << "hi" + 5 gives this strange output?

Question

Try
cout << "hi" + 5;
Output:
;L

Is compiler angry on me? :(

Answer 1

A string sits in a place in memory, from point start to point end, and by + you go to the next letter, like Seb TheS showed.

When you try to access a letter beyond your string, you may get a random value. Often that's just what was at that point in memory before your program required this for its execution.

That's popularly called 'garbage value'.

(And you should not do this, since it's uncontrollable.)

for funsies, run this:

https://code.sololearn.com/cJqUS9OtOz82/?ref=app

Answer 2

When you add an integer to string it evaluate the string which is cut by the given amount of characters from the beginning:

"hello" + 1 ---> "ello"
"hello" + 2 ---> "llo"
"hello" + 3 ---> "lo"

But I've no idea what happened with:

"hi" + 5

Answer 3

Are you really supposed to get an output like this?

Answer 4

HonFu, yes, fun) I know about all of this but forgot i can get elements of str this way and that's strange that the ;L is every time in the same place. In you example they are different every time.

Answer 5

Alexik, there's just no way to foresee this, it might depend on the hardware, the operating system, what programs you ran before or whatever.

Calling it 'random' would be wrong, but it is arbitrary.

Answer 6

I get ;L on any string + int in cout
cout << "guuf" + 5 gives same
;L

Answer 7

Alexik I got "uf" from "guuf" + 2.

Answer 8

Try + 5

Answer 9

Seb TheS. I got: when you out of range it gives this - ;L in cout and gives empty when assigned