PRINTF(3) Linux Programmer's Manual PRINTF(3)NAME
printf, fprintf, sprintf, snprintf, vprintf, vfprintf,
vsprintf, vsnprintf - formatted output conversion SYNOPSIS
#include <stdio.h> int printf(const char *format, ...);
int fprintf(FILE *stream, const char *format, ...);
int sprintf(char *str, const char *format, ...);
int snprintf(char *str, size_t size, const char *format,
...); #include <stdarg.h> int vprintf(const char *format, va_list ap);
int vfprintf(FILE *stream, const char *format, va_list
ap);
int vsprintf(char *str, const char *format, va_list ap);
int vsnprintf(char *str, size_t size, const char *format,
va_list ap); DESCRIPTION
The functions in the printf family produce output accord-
ing to a format as described below. The functions printf
and vprintf write output to stdout, the standard output
stream; fprintf and vfprintf write output to the given
output stream; sprintf, snprintf, vsprintf and vsnprintf
write to the character string str. The functions vprintf, vfprintf, vsprintf, vsnprintf are
equivalent to the functions printf, fprintf, sprintf,
snprintf, respectively, except that they are called with a
va_list instead of a variable number of arguments. These
functions do not call the va_end macro. Consequently, the
value of ap is undefined after the call. The application
should call va_end(ap) itself afterwards. These eight functions write the output under the control
of a format string that specifies how subsequent arguments
(or arguments accessed via the variable-length argument
facilities of stdarg(3)) are converted for output. Return value
These functions return the number of characters printed
(not including the trailing `\0' used to end output to
strings). snprintf and vsnprintf do not write more than
size bytes (including the trailing '\0'), and return -1 if
the output was truncated due to this limit. (Thus until
glibc 2.0.6. Since glibc 2.1 these functions follow the
C99 standard and return the number of characters (exclud-
ing the trailing '\0') which would have been written to
the final string if enough space had been available.) Format of the format string
The format string is a character string, beginning and
ending in its initial shift state, if any. The format
string is composed of zero or more directives: ordinary
characters (not %), which are copied unchanged to the out-
put stream; and conversion specifications, each of which
results in fetching zero or more subsequent arguments.
Each conversion specification is introduced by the
character %, and ends with a conversion specifier. In
between there may be (in this order) zero or more flags,
an optional minimum field width, an optional precision and
an optional length modifier. The arguments must correspond properly (after type promo-
tion) with the conversion specifier. By default, the argu-
ments are used in the order given, where each `*' and each
conversion specifier asks for the next argument (and it is
an error if insufficiently many arguments are given). One
can also specify explicitly which argument is taken, at
each place where an argument is required, by writing `%m$'
instead of `%' and `*m$' instead of `*', where the decimal
integer m denotes the position in the argument list of the
desired argument, indexed starting from 1. Thus,
printf("%*d", width, num);
and
printf("%2$*1$d", width, num);
are equivalent. The second style allows repeated refer-
ences to the same argument. The C99 standard does not
include the style using `$', which comes from the Single
Unix Specification. If the style using `$' is used, it
must be used throughout for all conversions taking an
argument and all width and precision arguments, but it may
be mixed with `%%' formats which do not consume an argu-
ment. There may be no gaps in the numbers of arguments
specified using `$'; for example, if arguments 1 and 3 are
specified, argument 2 must also be specified somewhere in
the format string. For some numeric conversions a radix character (`decimal
point') or thousands' grouping character is used. The
actual character used depends on the LC_NUMERIC part of
the locale. The POSIX locale uses `.' as radix character,
and does not have a grouping character. Thus,
printf("%'.2f", 1234567.89);
results in `1234567.89' in the POSIX locale, in
`1234567,89' in the nl_NL locale, and in `1.234.567,89' in
the da_DK locale. The flag characters
The character % is followed by zero or more of the follow-
ing flags: # The value should be converted to an ``alternate
form''. For o conversions, the first character of
the output string is made zero (by prefixing a 0 if
it was not zero already). For x and X conversions,
a non-zero result has the string `0x' (or `0X' for
X conversions) prepended to it. For a, A, e, E, f,
F, g, and G conversions, the result will always
contain a decimal point, even if no digits follow
it (normally, a decimal point appears in the
results of those conversions only if a digit fol-
lows). For g and G conversions, trailing zeros are
not removed from the result as they would otherwise
be. For other conversions, the result is unde-
fined. 0 The value should be zero padded. For d, i, o, u,
x, X, a, A, e, E, f, F, g, and G conversions, the
converted value is padded on the left with zeros
rather than blanks. If the 0 and - flags both
appear, the 0 flag is ignored. If a precision is
given with a numeric conversion (d, i, o, u, x, and
X), the 0 flag is ignored. For other conversions,
the behavior is undefined. - The converted value is to be left adjusted on the
field boundary. (The default is right justifica-
tion.) Except for n conversions, the converted
value is padded on the right with blanks, rather
than on the left with blanks or zeros. A - over-
rides a 0 if both are given. ' ' (a space) A blank should be left before a positive
number (or empty string) produced by a signed con-
version. + A sign (+ or -) always be placed before a number
produced by a signed conversion. By default a sign
is used only for negative numbers. A + overrides a
space if both are used. The five flag characters above are defined in the C stan-
dard. The SUSv2 specifies one further flag character. ' For decimal conversion (i, d, u, f, F, g, G) the
output is to be grouped with thousands' grouping
characters if the locale information indicates any.
Note that many versions of gcc cannot parse this
option and will issue a warning. SUSv2 does not
include %'F. glibc 2.2 adds one further flag character. I For decimal integer conversion (i, d, u) the output
uses the locale's alternative output digits, if any
(for example, Arabic digits). However, it does not
include any locale definitions with such outdigits
defined. The field width
An optional decimal digit string (with nonzero first
digit) specifying a minimum field width. If the converted
value has fewer characters than the field width, it will
be padded with spaces on the left (or right, if the left-
adjustment flag has been given). Instead of a decimal
digit string one may write `*' or `*m$' (for some decimal
integer m) to specify that the field width is given in the
next argument, or in the m-th argument, respectively,
which must be of type int. A negative field width is
taken as a `-' flag followed by a positive field width.
In no case does a non-existent or small field width cause
truncation of a field; if the result of a conversion is
wider than the field width, the field is expanded to con-
tain the conversion result. The precision
An optional precision, in the form of a period (`.') fol-
lowed by an optional decimal digit string. Instead of a
decimal digit string one may write `*' or `*m$' (for some
decimal integer m) to specify that the precision is given
in the next argument, or in the m-th argument, respec-
tively, which must be of type int. If the precision is
given as just `.', or the precision is negative, the pre-
cision is taken to be zero. This gives the minimum number
of digits to appear for d, i, o, u, x, and X conversions,
the number of digits to appear after the radix character
for a, A, e, E, f, and F conversions, the maximum number
of significant digits for g and G conversions, or the max-
imum number of characters to be printed from a string for
s and S conversions. The length modifier
Here, `integer conversion' stands for d, i, o, u, x, or X
conversion. hh A following integer conversion corresponds to a
signed char or unsigned char argument, or a follow-
ing n conversion corresponds to a pointer to a
signed char argument. h A following integer conversion corresponds to a
short int or unsigned short int argument, or a fol-
lowing n conversion corresponds to a pointer to a
short int argument. l (ell) A following integer conversion corresponds to
a long int or unsigned long int argument, or a fol-
lowing n conversion corresponds to a pointer to a
long int argument, or a following c conversion cor-
responds to a wint_t argument, or a following s
conversion corresponds to a pointer to wchar_t
argument. ll (ell-ell). A following integer conversion corre-
sponds to a long long int or unsigned long long int
argument, or a following n conversion corresponds
to a pointer to a long long int argument. L A following a, A, e, E, f, F, g, or G conversion
corresponds to a long double argument. (C99 allows
%LF, but SUSv2 does not.) q (`quad'. BSD 4.4 and Linux libc5 only. Don't use.)
This is a synonym for ll. j A following integer conversion corresponds to an
intmax_t or uintmax_t argument. z A following integer conversion corresponds to a
size_t or ssize_t argument. (Linux libc5 has Z with
this meaning. Don't use it.) t A following integer conversion corresponds to a
ptrdiff_t argument. The SUSv2 only knows about the length modifiers h (in hd,
hi, ho, hx, hX, hn) and l (in ld, li, lo, lx, lX, ln, lc,
ls) and L (in Le, LE, Lf, Lg, LG).
The conversion specifier
A character that specifies the type of conversion to be
applied. The conversion specifiers and their meanings
are:
d,i The int argument is converted to signed decimal
notation. The precision, if any, gives the minimum
number of digits that must appear; if the converted
value requires fewer digits, it is padded on the
left with zeros. The default precision is 1. When
0 is printed with an explicit precision 0, the out-
put is empty. o,u,x,X
The unsigned int argument is converted to unsigned
octal (o), unsigned decimal (u), or unsigned hex-
adecimal (x and X) notation. The letters abcdef
are used for x conversions; the letters ABCDEF are
used for X conversions. The precision, if any,
gives the minimum number of digits that must
appear; if the converted value requires fewer dig-
its, it is padded on the left with zeros. The
default precision is 1. When 0 is printed with an
explicit precision 0, the output is empty. e,E The double argument is rounded and converted in the
style d.ddde±dd where there is one digit before
the decimal-point character and the number of dig-
its after it is equal to the precision; if the pre-
cision is missing, it is taken as 6; if the preci-
sion is zero, no decimal-point character appears.
An E conversion uses the letter E (rather than e)
to introduce the exponent. The exponent always
contains at least two digits; if the value is zero,
the exponent is 00. f,F The double argument is rounded and converted to
decimal notation in the style ddd.ddd, where the
number of digits after the decimal-point character
is equal to the precision specification. If the
precision is missing, it is taken as 6; if the pre-
cision is explicitly zero, no decimal-point charac-
ter appears. If a decimal point appears, at least
one digit appears before it. (The SUSv2 does not know about F and says that
character string representations for infinity and
NaN may be made available. The C99 standard speci-
fies `inf' or `infinity' for infinity, and a
string starting with `nan' for NaN, in the case of
f conversion, and `INF' or `INFINITY' or
`NAN*' in the case of F conversion.) g,G The double argument is converted in style f or e
(or F or E for G conversions). The precision spec-
ifies the number of significant digits. If the
precision is missing, 6 digits are given; if the
precision is zero, it is treated as 1. Style e is
used if the exponent from its conversion is less
than -4 or greater than or equal to the precision.
Trailing zeros are removed from the fractional part
of the result; a decimal point appears only if it
is followed by at least one digit. a,A (C99; not in SUSv2) For a conversion, the double
argument is converted to hexadecimal notation
(using the letters abcdef) in the style
0xh.hhhhp±d; for A conversion the prefix 0X, the
letters ABCDEF, and the exponent separator P is
used. There is one hexadecimal digit before the
decimal point, and the number of digits after it is
equal to the precision. The default precision suf-
fices for an exact representation of the value if
an exact representation in base 2 exists and other-
wise is sufficiently large to distinguish values of
type double. The digit before the decimal point is
unspecified for non-normalized numbers, and nonzero
but otherwise unspecified for normalized numbers. c If no l modifier is present, the int argument is
converted to an unsigned char, and the resulting
character is written. If an l modifier is present,
the wint_t (wide character) argument is converted
to a multibyte sequence by a call to the wcrtomb
function, with a conversion state starting in the
initial state, and the resulting multibyte string
is written. s If no l modifier is present: The const char * argu-
ment is expected to be a pointer to an array of
character type (pointer to a string). Characters
from the array are written up to (but not includ-
ing) a terminating NUL character; if a precision is
specified, no more than the number specified are
written. If a precision is given, no null charac-
ter need be present; if the precision is not speci-
fied, or is greater than the size of the array, the
array must contain a terminating NUL character. If an l modifier is present: The const wchar_t *
argument is expected to be a pointer to an array of
wide characters. Wide characters from the array
are converted to multibyte characters (each by a
call to the wcrtomb function, with a conversion
state starting in the initial state before the
first wide character), up to and including a termi-
nating null wide character. The resulting multibyte
characters are written up to (but not including)
the terminating null byte. If a precision is speci-
fied, no more bytes than the number specified are
written, but no partial multibyte characters are
written. Note that the precision determines the
number of bytes written, not the number of wide
characters or screen positions. The array must
contain a terminating null wide character, unless a
precision is given and it is so small that the num-
ber of bytes written exceeds it before the end of
the array is reached. C (Not in C99, but in SUSv2.) Synonym for lc. Don't
use. S (Not in C99, but in SUSv2.) Synonym for ls. Don't
use. p The void * pointer argument is printed in hexadeci-
mal (as if by %#x or %#lx). n The number of characters written so far is stored
into the integer indicated by the int * (or vari-
ant) pointer argument. No argument is converted. % A `%' is written. No argument is converted. The
complete conversion specification is `%%'.
EXAMPLES
To print pi to five decimal places:
#include <math.h>
#include <stdio.h>
fprintf(stdout, "pi = %.5f\n", 4 * atan(1.0));
To print a date and time in the form `Sunday, July 3,
10:02', where weekday and month are pointers to strings:
#include <stdio.h>
fprintf(stdout, "%s, %s %d, %.2d:%.2d\n",
weekday, month, day, hour, min); Many countries use the day-month-year order. Hence, an
internationalized version must be able to print the argu-
ments in an order specified by the format:
#include <stdio.h>
fprintf(stdout, format,
weekday, month, day, hour, min);
where format depends on locale, and may permute the argu-
ments. With the value
"%1$s, %3$d. %2$s, %4$d:%5$.2d\n"
one might obtain `Sonntag, 3. Juli, 10:02'. To allocate a sufficiently large string and print into it
(code correct for both glibc 2.0 and glibc 2.1):
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
char *
make_message(const char *fmt, ...) {
/* Guess we need no more than 100 bytes. */
int n, size = 100;
char *p;
va_list ap;
if ((p = malloc (size)) == NULL)
return NULL;
while (1) {
/* Try to print in the allocated space. */
va_start(ap, fmt);
n = vsnprintf (p, size, fmt, ap);
va_end(ap);
/* If that worked, return the string. */
if (n > -1 && n < size)
return p;
/* Else try again with more space. */
if (n > -1) /* glibc 2.1 */
size = n+1; /* precisely what is needed */
else /* glibc 2.0 */
size *= 2; /* twice the old size */
if ((p = realloc (p, size)) == NULL)
return NULL;
}
}
CONFORMING TO
The fprintf, printf, sprintf, vprintf, vfprintf, and
vsprintf functions conform to ANSI X3.159-1989 (``ANSI
C'') and ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (``ISO C99''). The snprintf
and vsnprintf functions conform to ISO/IEC 9899:1999.
Concerning the return value of snprintf, the SUSv2 and the
C99 standard contradict each other: when snprintf is
called with size=0 then SUSv2 stipulates an unspecified
return value less than 1, while C99 allows str to be NULL
in this case, and gives the return value (as always) as
the number of characters that would have been written in
case the output string has been large enough. Linux libc4 knows about the five C standard flags. It
knows about the length modifiers h,l,L, and the conver-
sions cdeEfFgGinopsuxX, where F is a synonym for f. Addi-
tionally, it accepts D,O,U as synonyms for ld,lo,lu.
(This is bad, and caused serious bugs later, when support
for %D disappeared.) No locale-dependent radix character,
no thousands' separator, no NaN or infinity, no %m$ and
*m$. Linux libc5 knows about the five C standard flags and the
' flag, locale, %m$ and *m$. It knows about the length
modifiers h,l,L,Z,q, but accepts L and q both for long
doubles and for long long integers (this is a bug). It no
longer recognizes FDOU, but adds a new conversion charac-
ter m, which outputs strerror(errno). glibc 2.0 adds conversion characters C and S. glibc 2.1 adds length modifiers hh,j,t,z and conversion
characters a,A. glibc 2.2 adds the conversion character F with C99 seman-
tics, and the flag character I. HISTORY
Unix V7 defines the three routines printf, fprintf,
sprintf, and has the flag -, the width or precision *, the
length modifier l, and the conversions doxfegcsu, and also
D,O,U,X as synonyms for ld,lo,lu,lx. This is still true
for BSD 2.9.1, but BSD 2.10 has the flags #, + and <space>
and no longer mentions D,O,U,X. BSD 2.11 has vprintf,
vfprintf, vsprintf, and warns not to use D,O,U,X. BSD 4.3
Reno has the flag 0, the length modifiers h and L, and the
conversions n, p, E, G, X (with current meaning) and dep-
recates D,O,U. BSD 4.4 introduces the functions snprintf
and vsnprintf, and the length modifier q. FreeBSD also
has functions asprintf and vasprintf, that allocate a
buffer large enough for sprintf. In glibc there are func-
tions dprintf and vdprintf that print to a file descriptor
instead of a stream. BUGS
Because sprintf and vsprintf assume an arbitrarily long
string, callers must be careful not to overflow the actual
space; this is often impossible to assure. Note that the
length of the strings produced is locale-dependent and
difficult to predict. Use snprintf and vsnprintf instead
(or asprintf and vasprintf). Linux libc4. does not have a snprintf, but provides a
libbsd that contains an snprintf equivalent to sprintf,
i.e., one that ignores the size argument. Thus, the use
of snprintf with early libc4 leads to serious security
problems. Code such as printf(foo); often indicates a bug, since foo
may contain a % character. If foo comes from untrusted
user input, it may contain %n, causing the printf call to
write to memory and creating a security hole. Some floating point conversions under early libc4 caused
memory leaks.
SEE ALSO
printf(1), asprintf(3), dprintf(3), wcrtomb(3),
wprintf(3), scanf(3), locale(5)
Linux Manpage 2000-10-16 PRINTF(3)
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