cout is not a member of std, and other issues regarding c++

Allow me to preface this by saying that I do have included (also applies to string, endl, and quite literally everything doesn't work); my IDE is showing no errors as far as syntax goes; and I cannot understand why this issue is happening? It works fine in one of my other C++ code samples I wrote. So I am trying to make a small game, bulls and cows. My main code looks as follows: ``` #include <iostream> #include "stdafx.h" #include "BullsAndCows.h" using std::cout; using std::endl; using std::cin; using std::string; int main() { string userInput = ""; bool playAgain = false; int gameDiff; constexpr char * GREETING = "Welcome to Bulls and Cows! Please enter the difficulty level: (1) Easy, (2) Medium, (3) Hard"; cin >> gameDiff; do { BullsAndCows *bc = new BullsAndCows(); bc->playGame(gameDiff); } while (playAgain); constexpr char * INFORMATION = "Total Word Length is: "; //Introduce the game. cout << GREETING <<endl; return 0; } ``` My header: ``` #ifndef BULLSANDCOWS_H #define BULLSANDCOWS_H class BullsAndCows { public: void playGame(int gameDiff); }; #endif ``` Finally, my BullsAndCows.cpp file: ``` #include <iostream> #include <string> #include "stdafx.h" #include "BullsAndCows.h" using std::cout; using std::endl; using std::cin; using std::string; void BullsAndCows::playGame(int gameDiff) { string wordGuess = ""; string secretWord = ""; int numBulls = 0; int numCows = 0; int numGuesses = 0; switch (gameDiff) { case 1: { numGuesses = 30; secretWord = "Hello"; for (int i = 0; i < 30; i++) { numBulls = 0; numCows = 0; cout << "Word Length to Guess Is Five, you have " << numGuesses << " guesses remaining" << endl; cout << "Enter your word guess"; cin >> wordGuess; for (int j = 0; j < wordGuess.length; j++) { if (wordGuess.at(j) == secretWord.at(j)) { numBulls++; } else if (secretWord.find(wordGuess.at(j)) != -1) { numCows++; } } cout << "Bulls: " << numBulls << endl; cout << "Cows: " << numCows << endl; if (numBulls == secretWord.length) { cout << "YOU WIN!" << endl; break; } } break; } case 2: numGuesses = 20; break; case 3: numGuesses = 10; break; } } ``` Errors I am getting as "cout is not a member of std", cout symbol cannot be used in a using declaration. Before that I was using "using namespace std" and that would return errors like "BullsAndCows" is not a namespace or class (if it is not a class, then I must be a martian). Also something about a missing ";" before userInput for example in my main.cpp code; which makes no sense as there is nothing that is missing that. I am using VS2017. Why is C++ such an annoying language to work in?