Format specifiers in C: a definitive explanation

Why do we use C format specifiers?

Format specifiers in C are used to accept inputs and print the output of a type. The symbol we use in every format specifier is %. Format specifiers tell the compiler the type of data to be given or typed and the type of data to be printed to the screen.

Now that you have a brief idea of ​​format specifiers in C, we have a few lists of format specifiers moving forward.

The most commonly used format specifiers in C

The most commonly used format specifiers are given below:

We will go through some examples to help you understand how to use format specifiers in printf() and scanf() functions for better understanding.

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Format specifier %d (decimal integer).

#include

int main()

{

int a=50;

printf(“Integer value of a is %d n”,a);

return 0;

}

Output:

%c (character) format specifier

#include

int main()

{

char s;

printf(“Enter the character n”);

scanf(“%c”,&s);

printf(“Character is: %c”,s);

return 0;

}

Output:

%f (floating point) format specifier.

#include

int main()

{

float a=3;

printf(“Floating point of a is %f n”,a);

return 0;

}

Output:

Format specifier %e (float number).

#include

int main()

{

float a=12.5;

printf(“Floating point of a is %e n”,a);

return 0;

}

Output:

%s (string) format specifier

#include

int main()

{

char s[15]=”just learning”;

printf(“String value of s is %s n”,s);

return 0;

}

Output:

%lf (double) format specifier

#include

int main()

{

double d=12.5;

printf(“Double value of d is %lf n”,d);

return 0;

}

Output:

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%o (octal integer) Format specifier

#include

int main()

{

int oct=11;

printf(“The octal integer of oct is %o n”,oct);

return 0;

}

Output:

Format specifier %x (hexadecimal integer).

#include

int main()

{

int h=14;

printf(“The hexadecimal value of h is %x n”,h);

return 0;

}

Output:

%p (Prints memory address) Format specifier

To find the memory address that contains variable values, we use the %p format specifier and it prints in hexadecimal.

#include

int main()

{

int sum=0;

printf(“The memory address of sum is %p n”,&sum);

return 0;

}

output:

This concludes this tutorial on format specifiers in C

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next steps

“Data Structures in C” can be your next topic. So far you have learned why we use format specifiers in C. The next basics will be data structures and the varieties in data structures used for different purposes.

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