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What are printf conversion characters and their types?


The use of printf is to print out a string with no blank fields to be filled.

For example,

printf ("An ordinary string..");
printf ("Testing 1,2,3...");

The next simplest case that has been used before now is to print out a single integer number.

int number = 48;
printf ("%d",number);

The two can be combined as shown below −

int number = 48;
printf ("Some number = %d",number);

The result of this last example is to print out the following on the screen −

Some number = 48

Here is a list of the different letters for printf −

  • d − signed denary integer
  • u − unsigned denary integer
  • x − hexadecimal integer
  • o − octal integer
  • s − string
  • c − single character
  • f − fixed decimal floating point
  • e − scientific notation floating point
  • g − use f or e, whichever is shorter

Example

Following is the C program for the use of printf conversion characters and types

/* printf Conversion Characters and Types */
#include <stdio.h>
main (){
   int i = -10;
   unsigned int ui = 10;
   float x = 3.56;
   double y = 3.52;
   char ch = ’z’;
   char *string_ptr = "any old string";
   printf ("signed integer %d\n", i);
   printf ("unsigned integer %u\n",ui);
   printf ("This is wrong! %u",i);
   printf ("See what happens when you get the ");
   printf ("character wrong!");
   printf ("Hexadecimal %x %x\n",i,ui);
   printf ("Octal %o %o\n",i,ui);
   printf ("Float and double %f %f\n",x,y);
   printf (" ditto %e %e\n",x,y);
   printf (" ditto %g %g\n",x,y);
   printf ("single character %c\n",ch);
   printf ("whole string -> %s",string_ptr);
}

Output

When the above program is executed, it produces the following result −

signed integer -10
unsigned integer 10
This is wrong! 4294967286See what happens when you get the character wrong!Hexadecimal fffffff6 a
Octal 37777777766 12
Float and double 3.560000 3.520000
ditto 3.560000e+000 3.520000e+000
ditto 3.56 3.52
single character z
whole string -> any old string