Why should I not #include <bits/stdc++.h>?

I posted a question with my code whose only #include directive was the following:

#include 

My teacher told me to do this, but in the comments section I was informed that I shouldn't.

Why?

Including ` appears to be an increasingly common thing to see on Stack Overflow, perhaps something newly added to a national curriculum in the current academic year.

I imagine the advantages are vaguely given thus:



• You only need write one #include line.

• You do not need to look up which standard header everything is in.

Unfortunately, this is a lazy hack, naming a GCC internal header directly instead of individual standard headers like , and `. It ruins portability and fosters terrible habits.

The disadvantages include:

• It will probably only work on that compiler.

• You have no idea what it'll do when you use it, because its contents are not set by a standard.

• Even just upgrading your compiler to its own next version may break your program.

• Every single standard header must be parsed and compiled along with your source code, which is slow and results in a bulky executable under certain compilation settings.

Don't do it!

More information:

• #include with visual studio does not compile

• How does #include work in C++?

Example of why Quora is bad:

• Is it good practice to use #include in programming contests instead of listing a lot of includes?

Stack Overflow Q#31816095, score: 541