return types

[Valmont]

There are lots of header files, so there seems a lot to memorize. Don't. Learn the basics as you go (buy that book). The rest is experiance. And there is no shame in reading a reference if you don't know something, or need to know a little extra.

The "std" stands for "standard" indeed. In C++ the current standard (we are talking about the international standard as defined by the ISO comittee) requires to define the standard within the namespace std.
A few rules for the current standard:
- Name C++ headers without the .h extension: <iostream> instead of <iostream.h>
- Old C headers precede with a "c" without the .h extension: <cmath> instead of <math.h> or <math>.

That's right, functions, members and so forth are grouped and defined in specific header files. Here is a picture:

[falsepride]

one last question about this, the lines useing std:cout; and what not. its saying that your using the function inside the standard namespace. so if i wanted to i could make my own cout function inside a namespace called blah. and if i put using blah::cout; everytime i used cout, it would use my function. and if did std:cout<< "hello word"; it would use the standard cout function. right?

[Valmont]

Yes, indeed. Well done.
However, one shouldn't redifne C and C++ intrinsic methods and functions. But it is possible.
Look at the 7th post in this thread. That is my post. Check out how I could redefine "dec". Although "dec" is an C++ indentifier.

Here's a little practice for you:
- Make your own abs() function.
- Demonstrate how to use yours, and how to use the one that came with C++.

[falsepride]

main()
{
     unsigned short x;
     unsigned short y;
     ULONG z;
     z = x * y;
}

what does ulong mean? i know unigned are only positive so the largest is twice as big as a signed, and that int are assumed to be signed if you dont declare them unsigned. and i know that if their short, that it just means their shorter and use less mememory, and the number of bytes they use varies from computers, but what does ulong mean?

[falsepride]

ohhh nvm, i got it, ULONG is a typedef. the book im using "Learn C++ in 21 Days", or something like that, is pissing me off. it uses things in code examples and doesnt explain them untill later on in that page.