Questions tagged [printf]

The shell builtin command that formats and prints data. Questions that deal with printf command or broadly using printf syntax by programming language (like awk, PHP, perl, C++...)

printf stand for print formatted. printf is shell builtin command used to print and format data and outputs to stdout.

In addition, many programming languages like awk, C++, PHP, perl use/include printf.

Useful links:

Example of usage on this site: Why printf is better than echo?

279 questions

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1 answer

Does printf have an "engineering" notation format for numbers?

Say I have this number: 105000000, in this form I can't easily see how big it is, so using printf at a prompt I try using the "scientific" notation: % printf "%.3E" 105000000 1.050E+08 This is better but I would like to use an "engineering"…

printf

asked Sep 28 '17 at 01:33

the_velour_fog

12,270

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1 answer

Setting the column position in printf

How to fix the positions of output string in shell using printf? For example ,if I want to print text TEXT-A at position starting from third position from left and one more text TEXT-B at eleventh position from left,as shown below.

printf

asked Jul 23 '13 at 10:41

g4ur4v

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1 answer

print characters repetitively using asterisk symbol in bash

print '*' * 80 This python snippet prints 80 asterisks, which I use often as delimiters in log files. How can I do it in bash script using operator overloading?

printf

asked Jun 11 '15 at 02:19

user93868

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1 answer

What format to pass to printf to convert seconds to hh:mm:ss?

I'm looking at an instruction of the form: $ printf [format] $elapsed with $elapsed expressed in seconds. I want it to output 'hh:mm:ss'. I couldn't figure out format from the man. Would someone please make a suggestion?

printf

asked Feb 23 '23 at 08:46

Erwann

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3 answers

Set printf dynamic format for trailing whitespaces

Any standard way to make the '%-6s' format for printf dynamic? function justify { echo "$(printf '%-6s' $1)" } I tried inserting variable into the format but I'm getting Error processing format error. $(printf '%-${2}s' ${1})

printf

asked Feb 15 '22 at 01:25

resti

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0 answers

Do printf(1) implementations differ in how they handle argument overflow?

Every instance I've found of printf(1) (that is, the command-line version; as opposed to printf(3), the C library) repeats its format-string to consume more when presented with too many arguments, allowing for constructions such as printf '%s\n'…

printf

asked May 09 '21 at 01:43

JamesTheAwesomeDude

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1 answer

printf "$V" fails when it's: '^+%&/%+^

To avoid \n: using "printf" rather than "echo" Set String IFS='' read -r -d '' V <<'EOF' '^+%&/%+^ EOF Test w/ echo ( works fine ) echo "$V" '^+%&/%+^ Test w/ printf ( fails ) printf "$V" bash: printf: `&': invalid format character

printf

asked Feb 21 '17 at 11:35

user217158

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1 answer

How to draw a Divider Line with Name Title before the output display

I have written a script which displays Name and department of the user and that works.Moreover i am trying to draw a divider line with Name title assign to the columns as they needed. I am trying to do it with printf but somehow not able to get it…

printf

asked Jan 19 '17 at 03:54

krock1516

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1 answer

printf thousand separator not working on MacBook

I am using the following command on Terminal in MacBook. printf "The number is %'d\n" 123456 I expect the output: The number is 123,456. But I am getting: The number is 123456. Please point out my mistake.

printf

asked Nov 23 '16 at 10:18

Ashok Kanetkar

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1 answer

How to print a horizontal line the size of the terminal with a word in the middle?

I need to display --------------------------- word ---------------------------- with the word right in the middle of the horizontal line and set the length of the horizontal line to that it fits the used terminal width. I thought about using a…

printf

asked Oct 02 '16 at 18:10