What is Format Specifier in C?
In C, format specifiers are placeholders within a format string and they are used with functions like printf() and scanf() to specify the type and format of the data to be printed or read.
Format specifiers begin with a percent sign (%) followed by a character that specifies the type of data.
In C, common format specifiers are:
%d: Used for printing integers.%f: Used to format and print single-precision floating-point numbers (float).%lf: Used to format and print double-precision floating-point numbers (double).%c: Used for printing characters.%s: Used for printing strings (char array)%p: Used for a pointer and it prints memory address
Use format specifiers in C
%d for Interger Data Type
xxxxxxxxxx int num = 999; printf("Integer: %d", num);
'%d' is used in the code printf("Integer: %d\n", num); to format the integer data type 'num'.
%f for Float Data Type
xxxxxxxxxx float floatNum = 12.50; printf("Float: %f\n", floatNum);
'%f' is used in the code printf("Float: %f\n", floatNum); to format the float data type 'floatNum' variable.
%lf for Double Data Type
xxxxxxxxxx double doubleValue = 123.456; printf("Double %lf", value);
'%lf' is used in the code printf("Double %lf", doubleValue); to format the double data type 'doubleValue' variable. '%f' also works for double data type.
%c for Character Data Type
xxxxxxxxxx char character = 'A'; printf("Character: %c", character);
'%c' is used in the code printf("Character: %c", character); to format the char data type 'character' variable.
%s for String (char array)
xxxxxxxxxx char strg[] = "Hello world"; printf("String: %s", strg);
'%s' is used in the code printf("String: %s", strg); to format the string (char array) data 'strg' variable.
%p for pointer
xxxxxxxxxx int num = 12; int *ptr = # printf("Pointer: %p", ptr);
'%p' is used in the code printf("Pointer: %p", ptr); to format the pointer 'ptr' variable. It prints the memory address of 'num' variable stored in the pointer 'ptr'.
Examples of Format Specifiers in C
xxxxxxxxxx#include <stdio.h>int main() { int num = 999; printf("Integer: %d\n", num); //'\n' is used to create a new line float floatNum = 12.50; printf("Float: %.2f\n", floatNum); // Formats float to 2 decimal places double doubleValue = 123.456; printf("Double %lf\n", doubleValue); char character = 'A'; printf("Character: %c\n", character); char string[] = "Hello world"; printf("String: %s\n", string); return 0;}Output of the above example
Integer: 999 Float: 12.50 Double 123.456000 Character: A String: Hello world
