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Format Specifiers in C

Format specifiers in C are used to specify the type of data for input and output functions like scanf() and printf(). There are various format specifiers like %c for characters, %d for integers, %f for floats, and %s for strings. Additional parameters can be added to format specifiers to control alignment, field width, and precision. Examples demonstrate using format specifiers with printf() to output different data types and formats like integers, floats, strings, octal, and hexadecimal values. Format specifiers work similarly with scanf() to input values.

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1K views3 pages

Format Specifiers in C

Format specifiers in C are used to specify the type of data for input and output functions like scanf() and printf(). There are various format specifiers like %c for characters, %d for integers, %f for floats, and %s for strings. Additional parameters can be added to format specifiers to control alignment, field width, and precision. Examples demonstrate using format specifiers with printf() to output different data types and formats like integers, floats, strings, octal, and hexadecimal values. Format specifiers work similarly with scanf() to input values.

Uploaded by

Sakshi Jain
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Format specifiers in C

The format specifiers are used in C for input and output purposes. Using this concept
the compiler can understand that what type of data is in a variable during taking input
using the scanf() function and printing using printf() function. Here is a list of format
specifiers.

Format Specifier Type

%c Character

%d Signed integer

%e or %E Scientific notation of floats

%f Float values

%g or %G Similar as %e or %E

%hi Signed integer (short)

%hu Unsigned Integer (short)

%i Unsigned integer

%l or %ld or %li Long

%lf Double

%Lf Long double

%lu Unsigned int or unsigned long


Format Specifier Type

%lli or %lld Long long

%llu Unsigned long long

%o Octal representation

%p Pointer

%s String

%u Unsigned int

%x or %X Hexadecimal representation

%n Prints nothing

%% Prints % character

These are the basic format specifiers. We can add some other parts with the format
specifiers. These are like below −
 A minus symbol (-) sign tells left alignment
 A number after % specifies the minimum field width. If string is less than the
width, it will be filled with spaces
 A period (.) is used to separate field width and precision

Example
 Live Demo

#include <stdio.h>

main() {

   char ch = 'B';

   printf("%c\n", ch); //printing character data


   //print decimal or integer data with d and i

   int x = 45, y = 90;

   printf("%d\n", x);

   printf("%i\n", y);

   float f = 12.67;

   printf("%f\n", f); //print float value

   printf("%e\n", f); //print in scientific notation

   int a = 67;

   printf("%o\n", a); //print in octal format

   printf("%x\n", a); //print in hex format

   char str[] = "Hello World";

   printf("%s\n", str);

   printf("%20s\n", str); //shift to the right 20 characters


including the string

   printf("%-20s\n", str); //left align

   printf("%20.5s\n", str); //shift to the right 20 characters


including the string, and print string up to 5 character

   printf("%-20.5s\n", str); //left align and print string up to


5 character

Output
B
45
90
12.670000
1.267000e+001
103
43
Hello World
Hello World
Hello World
Hello
Hello

We can use these format specifiers for the scanf() function also in the same manner.
So we can take the input from scanf() like above how we have printed.

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