Questions tagged [printf]
printf is a common function for formatted output. C and many other languages have a whole family of related functions. Only use this tag if the question is directly concerned with printf or related functions.
printf
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JavaScript equivalent to printf/String.Format
I'm looking for a good JavaScript equivalent of the C/PHP printf() or for C#/Java programmers, String.Format() (IFormatProvider for .NET).
My basic requirement is a thousand separator format for ...
697
votes
8
answers
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What is the printf format specifier for bool?
Since ANSI C99 there is _Bool or bool via stdbool.h. But is there also a printf format specifier for bool?
I mean something like in that pseudo code:
bool x = true;
printf("%B\n", x);
which would ...
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votes
10
answers
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Why does printf not flush after the call unless a newline is in the format string?
Why does printf not flush after the call unless a newline is in the format string? Is this POSIX behavior? How might I have printf immediately flush every time?
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What is the conversion specifier for printf that formats a long?
The printf function takes an argument type, such as %d or %i for a signed int. However, I don't see anything for a long value.
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Is there a printf converter to print in binary format?
I can print with printf as a hex or octal number. Is there a format tag to print as binary, or arbitrary base?
I am running gcc.
printf("%d %x %o\n", 10, 10, 10); //prints "10 A 12\n&...
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Correct format specifier for double in printf
What is the correct format specifier for double in printf? Is it %f or is it %lf? I believe it's %f, but I am not sure.
Code sample
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
double d = 1.4;
printf(&...
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votes
14
answers
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How can one print a size_t variable portably using the printf family?
I have a variable of type size_t, and I want to print it using printf(). What format specifier do I use to print it portably?
In 32-bit machine, %u seems right. I compiled with g++ -g -W -Wall -...
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18
answers
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467
votes
14
answers
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How do you format an unsigned long long int using printf?
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
unsigned long long int num = 285212672; //FYI: fits in 29 bits
int normalInt = 5;
printf("My number is %d bytes wide and its value is %ul. A normal ...
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460
votes
7
answers
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How to printf "unsigned long" in C?
I can never understand how to print unsigned long datatype in C.
Suppose unsigned_foo is an unsigned long, then I try:
printf("%lu\n", unsigned_foo)
printf("%du\n", unsigned_foo)
printf("%ud\n", ...
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419
votes
11
answers
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Printing leading 0's in C
I'm trying to find a good way to print leading 0, such as 01001 for a ZIP Code. While the number would be stored as 1001, what is a good way to do it?
I thought of using either case statements or if ...
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13
answers
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How to escape the % (percent) sign in C's printf
How do you escape the % sign when using printf in C?
printf("hello\%"); /* not like this */
- 8,909
322
votes
106
answers
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Printing 1 to 1000 without loop or conditionals
Task: Print numbers from 1 to 1000 without using any loop or conditional statements. Don't just write the printf() or cout statement 1000 times.
How would you do that using C or C++?
284
votes
9
answers
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Difference between fprintf, printf and sprintf?
Can anyone explain in simple English about the differences between printf, fprintf, and sprintf with examples?
What stream is it in?
I'm really confused between the three of these while reading ...
- 35.9k
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votes
5
answers
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printf() formatting for hexadecimal
Why, when printing a number in hexadecimal as an 8 digit number with leading zeros, does %#08X not display the same result as 0x%08X?
When I try to use the former, the 08 formatting flag is removed, ...
- 2,731
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votes
19
answers
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views
241
votes
5
answers
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PHP sprintf escaping %
I want the following output:-
About to deduct 50% of € 27.59 from your Top-Up account.
when I do something like this:-
$variablesArray[0] = '€';
$variablesArray[1] = 27.59;
$stringWithVariables = ...
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votes
4
answers
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What is the difference between conversion specifiers %i and %d in formatted IO functions (*printf / *scanf)
What is the difference between %d and %i when used as format specifiers in printf and scanf?
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9
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printf with std::string?
My understanding is that string is a member of the std namespace, so why does the following occur?
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
using namespace std;
string myString = "Press ENTER ...
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216
votes
24
answers
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views
Why use sprintf function in PHP?
I am trying to learn more about the PHP function sprintf() but php.net did not help me much as I am still confused, why would you want to use it?
Take a look at my example below.
Why use this:
$...
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votes
10
answers
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What is the difference between printf() and puts() in C?
I know you can print with printf() and puts(). I can also see that printf() allows you to interpolate variables and do formatting.
Is puts() merely a primitive version of printf(). Should it be used ...
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votes
7
answers
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How can I print to standard error in C with 'printf'?
In C, printing to standard output (stdout) is easy, with printf from stdio.h.
However, how can I print to standard error (stderr)? We can use fprintf to achieve it apparently, but its syntax seems ...
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votes
11
answers
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How do you allow spaces to be entered using scanf?
Using the following code:
char *name = malloc(sizeof(char) + 256);
printf("What is your name? ");
scanf("%s", name);
printf("Hello %s. Nice to meet you.\n", name);
A user can enter their name but ...
- 36.8k
179
votes
8
answers
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Is there a way to specify how many characters of a string to print out using printf()?
Is there a way to specify how many characters of a string to print out (similar to decimal places in ints)?
printf ("Here are the first 8 chars: %s\n", "A string that is more than 8 chars");
Would ...
- 33.9k
167
votes
5
answers
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views
What is the format specifier for unsigned short int?
I have the following program
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
unsigned short int length = 10;
printf("Enter length : ");
scanf("%u", &length);
printf("value is %u \n"...
- 16.3k
165
votes
4
answers
157k
views
What does "%.*s" mean in printf?
I got a code snippet in which there is a
printf("%.*s\n")
what does the %.*s mean?
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votes
9
answers
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Printf width specifier to maintain precision of floating-point value
Is there a printf width specifier which can be applied to a floating point specifier that would automatically format the output to the necessary number of significant digits such that when scanning ...
- 11.8k
160
votes
4
answers
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Java: Literal percent sign in printf statement
I'm trying to add an actual percent sign into a printf statement in Java and I'm getting the error:
lab1.java:166: illegal escape character
System.out.printf("%s\t%s\t%1.2f\%\t%1.2f\%\...
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votes
4
answers
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Left-pad printf with spaces
How can I pad a string with spaces on the left when using printf?
For example, I want to print "Hello" with 40 spaces preceding it.
Also, the string I want to print consists of multiple lines. Do I ...
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votes
12
answers
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views
What is the use of the %n format specifier in C?
What is the use of the %n format specifier in C? Could anyone explain with an example?
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8
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What's up with Java's "%n" in printf?
I'm reading Effective Java and it uses %n for the newline character everywhere. I have used \n rather successfully for newline in Java programs.
Which is the 'correct' one? What's wrong with \n ? Why ...
- 226k
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votes
9
answers
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Using colors with printf
When written like this, it outputs text in blue:
printf "\e[1;34mThis is a blue text.\e[0m"
But I want to have format defined in printf:
printf '%-6s' "This is text"
Now I have tried several ...
- 3,269
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votes
17
answers
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Avoid trailing zeroes in printf()
I keep stumbling on the format specifiers for the printf() family of functions. What I want is to be able to print a double (or float) with a maximum given number of digits after the decimal point. ...
- 11k
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votes
6
answers
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Using printf with a non-null terminated string
Suppose you have a string which is NOT null terminated and you know its exact size, so how can you print that string with printf in C? I recall such a method but I can not find out now...
- 3,361
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votes
13
answers
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Padding characters in printf
I am writing a bash shell script to display if a process is running or not.
So far, I got this:
printf "%-50s %s\n" $PROC_NAME [UP]
The code gives me this output:
JBoss ...
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votes
8
answers
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Printing hexadecimal characters in C
I'm trying to read in a line of characters, then print out the hexadecimal equivalent of the characters.
For example, if I have a string that is "0xc0 0xc0 abc123", where the first 2 characters are ...
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answers
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views
How does the below program output `C89` when compiled in C89 mode and `C99` when compiled in C99 mode?
I've found this C program from the web:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
printf("C%d\n",(int)(90-(-4.5//**/
-4.5)));
return 0;
}
The interesting thing with this program is that ...
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votes
4
answers
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printf format specifiers for uint32_t and size_t
I have the following
size_t i = 0;
uint32_t k = 0;
printf("i [ %lu ] k [ %u ]\n", i, k);
I get the following warning when compiling:
format ‘%lu’ expects type ‘long unsigned int’, but argument ...
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votes
5
answers
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views
The "backspace" escape character '\b': unexpected behavior?
So I'm finally reading through K&R, and I learned something within the first few pages, that there is a backspace escape character, \b.
So I go to test it out, and there is some very odd behavior:...
- 8,754
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votes
6
answers
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How to format strings using printf() to get equal length in the output
I have two functions, one which produces messages like Starting initialization... and another which checks return codes and outputs "Ok", "Warning" or "Error". However, ...
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Python's many ways of string formatting — are the older ones (going to be) deprecated?
Python has at least six ways of formatting a string:
In [1]: world = "Earth"
# method 1a
In [2]: "Hello, %s" % world
Out[2]: 'Hello, Earth'
# method 1b
In [3]: "Hello, %(planet)s" % {"planet": ...
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votes
13
answers
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Integer ASCII value to character in BASH using printf
Character to value works:
$ printf "%d\n" \'A
65
$
I have two questions, the first one is most important:
How do I take 65 and turn it into A?
\'A converts an ASCII character to its value using ...
user14070
113
votes
1
answer
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views
How does Haskell printf work?
Haskell's type safety is second to none only to dependently-typed languages. But there is some deep magic going on with Text.Printf that seems rather type-wonky.
> printf "%d\n" 3
3
> printf "%...
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votes
9
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Clean code to printf size_t in C++ (or: Nearest equivalent of C99's %z in C++)
I have some C++ code that prints a size_t:
size_t a;
printf("%lu", a);
I'd like this to compile without warnings on both 32- and 64-bit architectures.
If this were C99, I could use printf("%z", a);....
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In C can a long printf statement be broken up into multiple lines?
I have the following statement:
printf("name: %s\targs: %s\tvalue %d\tarraysize %d\n", sp->name, sp->args, sp->value, sp->arraysize);
I want to break it up. I tried the following but it ...
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11
answers
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Why is printf with a single argument (without conversion specifiers) deprecated?
In a book that I'm reading, it's written that printf with a single argument (without conversion specifiers) is deprecated. It recommends to substitute
printf("Hello World!");
with
puts("Hello World!...
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How to format a number using comma as thousands separator in C?
In C, how can I format a large number from e.g. 1123456789 to 1,123,456,789?
I tried using printf("%'10d\n", 1123456789), but that doesn't work.
Could you advise anything? The simpler the ...
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7
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C++ equivalent of sprintf?
I know that std::cout is the C++ equivalent of printf.
What is the C++ equivalent of sprintf?
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13
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How to repeat a char using printf?
I'd like to do something like printf("?", count, char) to repeat a character count times.
What is the right format-string to accomplish this?
EDIT: Yes, it is obvious that I could call printf() in a ...
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7
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How to pass variable number of arguments to printf/sprintf
I have a class that holds an "error" function that will format some text. I want to accept a variable number of arguments and then format them using printf.
Example:
class MyClass
{
public:
...
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