The input operator» will skip leading white space when inputting a string value, but will stop reading characters when a white-space character is encountered (or the end of the file is reached); this white-space character will not be removed from the input stream. The string function get1i ne 0 will not skip leading white space and will read characters until the end-of-line character (or other specified delimiter) is encountered, and it will remove it from the input stream.