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snprintf(3) - phpMan
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);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
snprintf(), vsnprintf():
_BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 || _ISOC99_SOURCE || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L;
or cc -std=c99
DESCRIPTION
The functions in the printf() family produce output according 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 snprintf() and vsnprintf() write at most size bytes (including the terminat‐
ing null byte ('\0')) to str.
The functions vprintf(), vfprintf(), vsprintf(), vsnprintf() are equivalent to the func‐
tions 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. Because they invoke the va_arg macro, the value of ap is undefined
after the call. See stdarg(3).
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 facili‐
ties of stdarg(3)) are converted for output.
C99 and POSIX.1-2001 specify that the results are undefined if a call to sprintf(),
snprintf(), vsprintf(), or vsnprintf() would cause copying to take place between objects
that overlap (e.g., if the target string array and one of the supplied input arguments
refer to the same buffer). See NOTES.
Return value
Upon successful return, these functions return the number of characters printed (excluding
the null byte used to end output to strings).
The functions snprintf() and vsnprintf() do not write more than size bytes (including the
terminating null byte ('\0')). If the output was truncated due to this limit, then the
return value is the number of characters (excluding the terminating null byte) which would
have been written to the final string if enough space had been available. Thus, a return
value of size or more means that the output was truncated. (See also below under NOTES.)
If an output error is encountered, a negative value is returned.
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 output 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 promotion) with the conversion speci‐
fier. By default, the arguments are used in the order given, where each '*' and each con‐
version 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 references to the same argument. The
C99 standard does not include the style using '$', which comes from the Single UNIX Speci‐
fication. If the style using '$' 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 argument. There may be no gaps in the numbers of argu‐
ments 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 char‐
acter. 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 following 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 nonzero 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 (nor‐
mally, a decimal point appears in the results of those conversions only if a digit
follows). For g and G conversions, trailing zeros are not removed from the result
as they would otherwise be. For other conversions, the result is undefined.
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 justification.) The converted value is padded on the right with blanks,
rather than on the left with blanks or zeros. A - overrides a 0 if both are given.
' ' (a space) A blank should be left before a positive number (or empty string) pro‐
duced by a signed conversion.
+ A sign (+ or -) should always be placed before a number produced by a signed con‐
version. 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 C99 standard. The Single UNIX Specifi‐
cation specifies one further flag character.
' For decimal conversion (i, d, u, f, F, g, G) the output is to be grouped with thou‐
sands' grouping characters if the locale information indicates any. Note that many
versions of gcc(1) cannot parse this option and will issue a warning. (SUSv2 did
not include %'F, but SUSv3 added it.)
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, since glibc 2.2.3 this will give Arabic-Indic
digits in the Persian ("fa_IR") locale.
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 nonexistent 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 contain the conversion result.
The precision
An optional precision, in the form of a period ('.') followed by an optional decimal
digit string. Instead of a decimal digit string one may write "*" or "*m$" (for some dec‐
imal integer m) to specify that the precision is given in the next argument, or in the m-
th argument, respectively, which must be of type int. If the precision is given as just
'.', the precision is taken to be zero. A negative precision is taken as if the precision
were omitted. 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 maximum 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 argu‐
ment, or a following n conversion corresponds to a pointer to a signed char argu‐
ment.
h A following integer conversion corresponds to a short int or unsigned short int
argument, or a following n conversion corresponds to a pointer to a short int argu‐
ment.
l (ell) A following integer conversion corresponds to a long int or unsigned long int
argument, or a following n conversion corresponds to a pointer to a long int argu‐
ment, or a following c conversion corresponds 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 corresponds 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 argu‐
ment. (C99 allows %LF, but SUSv2 does not.) This is a synonym for ll.
j A following integer conversion corresponds to an intmax_t or uintmax_t argument, or
a following n conversion corresponds to a pointer to an intmax_t argument.
z A following integer conversion corresponds to a size_t or ssize_t argument, or a
following n conversion corresponds to a pointer to a size_t argument.
t A following integer conversion corresponds to a ptrdiff_t argument, or a following
n conversion corresponds to a pointer to a ptrdiff_t argument.
SUSv3 specifies all of the above. SUSv2 specified only 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 speci‐
fiers 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 output is empty.
o, u, x, X
The unsigned int argument is converted to unsigned octal (o), unsigned decimal (u),
or unsigned hexadecimal (x and X) notation. The letters abcdef are used for x con‐
versions; 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 digits, 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 digits after it
is equal to the precision; if the precision is missing, it is taken as 6; if the
precision 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 precision is explicitly zero, no decimal-point character appears. If a decimal
point appears, at least one digit appears before it.
(SUSv2 does not know about F and says that character string representations for
infinity and NaN may be made available. SUSv3 adds a specification for F. The C99
standard specifies "[-]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 specifies 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, but added in SUSv3) For a conversion, the double argument is
converted to hexadecimal notation (using the letters abcdef) in the style
[-]0xh.hhhhp±; 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
suffices for an exact representation of the value if an exact representation in
base 2 exists and otherwise is sufficiently large to distinguish values of type
double. The digit before the decimal point is unspecified for nonnormalized num‐
bers, 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 wcr‐
tomb(3) 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 * argument 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 including) a terminating null byte ('\0'); if a precision is
specified, no more than the number specified are written. If a precision is given,
no null byte need be present; if the precision is not specified, or is greater than
the size of the array, the array must contain a terminating null byte.
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 con‐
verted to multibyte characters (each by a call to the wcrtomb(3) function, with a
conversion state starting in the initial state before the first wide character), up
to and including a terminating null wide character. The resulting multibyte char‐
acters are written up to (but not including) the terminating null byte. If a pre‐
cision is specified, 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 number of bytes written exceeds it before the end
of the array is reached.
C (Not in C99 or C11, but in SUSv2, SUSv3, and SUSv4.) Synonym for lc. Don't use.
S (Not in C99 or C11, but in SUSv2, SUSv3, and SUSv4.) Synonym for ls. Don't use.
p The void * pointer argument is printed in hexadecimal (as if by %#x or %#lx).
n The number of characters written so far is stored into the integer pointed to by
the corresponding argument. That argument shall be an int * , or variant whose
size matches the (optionally) supplied integer length modifier. No argument is
converted. The behavior is undefined if the conversion specification includes any
flags, a field width, or a precision.
m (Glibc extension.) Print output of strerror(errno). No argument is required.
% A '%' is written. No argument is converted. The complete conversion specification
is '%%'.
CONFORMING TO
The fprintf(), printf(), sprintf(), vprintf(), vfprintf(), and vsprintf() functions con‐
form to C89 and C99. The snprintf() and vsnprintf() functions conform to C99.
Concerning the return value of snprintf(), SUSv2 and C99 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. SUSv3 and later align their specification of snprintf() with C99.
glibc 2.1 adds length modifiers hh, j, t, and z and conversion characters a and A.
glibc 2.2 adds the conversion character F with C99 semantics, and the flag character I.
NOTES
Some programs imprudently rely on code such as the following
sprintf(buf, "%s some further text", buf);
to append text to buf. However, the standards explicitly note that the results are unde‐
fined if source and destination buffers overlap when calling sprintf(), snprintf(),
vsprintf(), and vsnprintf(). Depending on the version of gcc(1) used, and the compiler
options employed, calls such as the above will not produce the expected results.
The glibc implementation of the functions snprintf() and vsnprintf() conforms to the C99
standard, that is, behaves as described above, since glibc version 2.1. Until glibc
2.0.6, they would return -1 when the output was truncated.
BUGS
Because sprintf() and vsprintf() assume an arbitrarily long string, callers must be care‐
ful 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(3) and vasprintf(3)).
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.
EXAMPLE
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 arguments 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 arguments. 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, ...)
{
int n;
int size = 100; /* Guess we need no more than 100 bytes */
char *p, *np;
va_list ap;
p = malloc(size);
if (p == 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);
/* Check error code */
if (n < 0) {
free(p);
return NULL;
}
/* If that worked, return the string */
if (n < size)
return p;
/* Else try again with more space */
size = n + 1; /* Precisely what is needed */
np = realloc(p, size);
if (np == NULL) {
free(p);
return NULL;
} else {
p = np;
}
}
}
If truncation occurs in glibc versions prior to 2.0.6, this is treated as an error instead
of being handled gracefully.
SEE ALSO
printf(1), asprintf(3), dprintf(3), scanf(3), setlocale(3), wcrtomb(3), wprintf(3),
locale(5)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.74 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the
project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be
found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
GNU 2014-07-08 PRINTF(3)
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