Home

Name

printf - prints to stdout ##Synopsis

#include <stdio.h>
int printf(char *format);

##Description

printf prints some formatted output to stdout (your computer terminal). You specify the format with a % followed by a c for a character, d for a digit, and s for a string. There are a number of other identifiers; the aformentioned, however, are the most used.

You can also further format output to stdout. After the %, including a number, such as 2, specifies the minimum number of characters to be printed. Using a decimal point . followed by some number, such as .2 indicates how precise you want your answer. A negative number, such as -2, will left-justify your output.

Format	Meaning
%d	print out digit
%i	print out integer
%f	print out float
%c	print out character
%s	print out string
%2d	print out digit using at least 2 characters
%.2d	specifies precision

Return Value

printf returns the total number of characters written. If there is a problem, it will return a negative number.

Examples

printf("%c%c%d %s\n", 'C', 'S', 50, "rocks!");
printf("%3d\n", 42);
printf("%5d\n", 42);
printf("%.2f\n", 42.0);

Output:

CS50 rocks!
 42
   42
42.00