Do you have to increment ostream_iterator when writing?

In many examples of ostream_iterator I notice that an increment operation is used between writes:

e.g.

#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>

using namespace std;

int main() {
  ostream_iterator<char> itr{ cout };
  *itr = 'H';
  ++itr; // commenting out this line appears to yield the same output
  *itr = 'i';
}

On the cpp reference increment (operator++) is listed as a no-op. Is there a reason to include it despite being a no-op? Is it a "best-practice" to include?

>Solution :

Why does ostream_iterator exist at all, when you can print directly to cout?

Answer: to be used with functions that expect an iterator.

There is a bunch of requirements that a type has to satisfy to be "an iterator" (and that those functions expect), and overloading ++ and * in a certain way is one of them.

Both * and ++ do nothing for an ostream iterator. If you’re asking if you should call them or not, you don’t need ostream_iterator in the first place.