PRINTF(1)						      General Commands Manual							 PRINTF(1)

NAME

       printf - formatted output

SYNOPSIS

       printf format [ arguments ... ]

DESCRIPTION

       Printf  formats	and  prints  its arguments, after the first, under control of the format.  The format is a character string which contains
       three types of objects: plain characters, which are simply copied to standard output, character escape sequences which  are  converted  and
       copied to the standard output, and format specifications, each of which causes printing of the next successive argument.

       The  arguments  after  the first are treated as strings if the corresponding format is either c or s; otherwise it is evaluated as a C con-
       stant, with the following extensions:

       o      A leading plus or minus sign is allowed.

       o      If the leading character is a single or double quote, or not a digit, plus, or minus sign, the value is the ASCII code of  the  next
	      character.

       The format string is reused as often as necessary to satisfy the arguments.  Any extra format specifications are evaluated with zero or the
       null string.

       Character escape sequences are in backslash notation as defined in the draft proposed ANSI C Standard  X3J11.   The  characters	and  their
       meanings are as follows:

	    a	      Write a <bell> character.

	    	      Write a <backspace> character.

	    f	      Write a <form-feed> character.

	    
	      Write a <new-line> character.

	    
	      Write a <carriage return> character.

	    		      Write a <tab> character.

	    v	      Write a <vertical tab> character.

	    '	      Write a <single quote> character.

	    \	      Write a backslash character.

	    
um      Write an 8-bit character whose ASCII value is the 1-, 2-, or 3-digit octal number num.

       Each  format specification is introduced by the percent character (``%'').  The remainder of the format specification includes, in the fol-
       lowing order:

       "Zero or more of the following flags:"

	    #	      A `#' character specifying that the value should be printed in an ``alternate form''.  For c, d, and s, formats, this option  has
		      no  effect.   For  the  o formats the precision of the number is increased to force the first character of the output string to a
		      zero.  For the x (X) format, a non-zero result has the string 0x (0X) prepended to it.  For e, E,  f,  g,  and  G,  formats,  the
		      result  will  always  contain  a decimal point, even if no digits follow the point (normally, a decimal point only appears in the
		      results of those formats if a digit follows the decimal point).  For g and G formats, trailing zeros are	not  removed  from  the
		      result as they would otherwise be;

	    -	      A minus sign `-' which specifies left adjustment of the output in the indicated field;

	    +	      A `+' character specifying that there should always be a sign placed before the number when using signed formats.

	    ` '       A space specifying that a blank should be left before a positive number for a signed format.  A `+' overrides a space if both are
		      used;

	    0	      A zero `0' character indicating that zero-padding should be used rather than blank-padding.  A `-' overrides a `0'  if  both  are
		 used;

       Field Width:
		 An  optional  digit  string  specifying  a field width; if the output string has fewer characters than the field width it will be
		 blank-padded on the left (or right, if the left-adjustment indicator has been given) to make up the  field  width  (note  that  a
		 leading zero is a flag, but an embedded zero is part of a field width);

       Precision:
		 An  optional  period,	.,  followed by an optional digit string giving a precision which specifies the number of digits to appear
		 after the decimal point, for e and f formats, or the maximum number of characters to be printed  from	a  string;  if	the  digit
		 string is missing, the precision is treated as zero;

       Format:
		 A character which indicates the type of format to use (one of diouxXfwEgGcs).

       A field width or precision may be * instead of a digit string.  In this case an argument supplies the field width or precision.

       The format characters and their meanings are:

       diouXx	 The argument is printed as a signed decimal (d or i), unsigned decimal, unsigned octal, or unsigned hexadecimal (X or x), respec-
		 tively.

       f	 The argument is printed in the style `[-]ddd.ddd' where the number of d's after the decimal point is equal to the precision spec-
		 ification  for the argument.  If the precision is missing, 6 digits are given; if the precision is explicitly 0, no digits and no
		 decimal point are printed.

       eE	 The argument is printed in the style e where there is one digit before the decimal point and the number after	is  equal  to  the
		 precision  specification  for the argument; when the precision is missing, 6 digits are produced.  An upper-case E is used for an
		 `E' format.

       gG	 The argument is printed in style f or in style e (E) whichever gives full precision in minimum space.

       c	 The first character of argument is printed.

       s	 Characters from the string argument are printed until the end is reached or until the number of characters indicated by the  pre-
		 cision specification is reached; however if the precision is 0 or missing, all characters in the string are printed.

       %	 Print a `%'; no argument is used.

       In  no  case  does  a  non-existent or small field width cause truncation of a field; padding takes place only if the specified field width
       exceeds the actual width.

RETURN VALUES

       Printf exits 0 on success, 1 on failure.

SEE ALSO

       printf(3)

HISTORY

       The printf command appeared in 4.3-Reno.  It is modeled after the standard library function, printf(3).

BUGS

       Since the floating point numbers are translated from ASCII to floating-point and then back again, floating-point precision may be lost.

       ANSI hexadecimal character constants were deliberately not provided.

4th Berkeley Distribution					    May 2, 1995 							 PRINTF(1)