[LC++]IO in C++

[Mark Phillips]

Hi,

Suppose I have an integer and I wish to convert it to a 
string.  I can do:

int myInt=259;
char myCstr[20];
sprintf(myCstr, "%d", myInt);

Or suppose I have a string and I wish to convert it to an
int.  I can do:

int myInt;
string myString="259";
istringstream iss(myString);
iss>>myInt;

But both of these seem a bit inelegant.  Are there better
ways of doing this kind of thing.

The other thing is, I have heard it said that cout is bad for
doing output formatting, and that printf should be used, even
in C++.  Do people agree?

What alternatives are there for dealing with IO in C++?  There
seems to be no sensible and flexible framework.  Am I wrong?

Thanks,

Mark.