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sscanf> <soundex
Last updated: Fri, 18 Jul 2008

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sprintf

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

sprintf — Restituisce una stringa formattata

Descrizione

string sprintf ( string $format [, mixed $args [, mixed $... ]] )

La funzione restituisce una stringa formattata in base al parametro format .

La stringa di formato è composta da 0 o più direttive: i caratteri ordinari (escluso il %) sono copiati direttamente nel risultato, mentre le specifiche di conversione, scaricano il proprio parametro. Queste note si applicano alle funzioni fprintf(), sprintf() e printf().

Ciascun parametro di conversione consiste nel segno percento (%), seguito da uno più dei seguenti elementi nell'ordine si ha:

  1. Un parametro opzionale di specifica del segno che forza la presenza del segno (- oppure +) in caso di numero. Per default, si usa soltanto il segno - se il numero è negativo. Questo parametro forza i numeri positiva ad avere il segno +, ed è stato aggiunto in PHP 4.3.0.
  2. Un parametro opzionale per la specifica del riempimento che indica quale carattere sarà utilizzato per completare la stringa risultante in modo da raggiungere la dimensione richiesta. Questo può essere uno spazio oppure uno 0 (il carattere zero). Per default si completa con spazi. Un carattere di riempimento alternativo può essere indicato anteponendo a questo l'apice singolo ('). Vedere gli esempi seguenti.
  3. Un parametro opzionale per la specifica dell'allineamento che indica se la stringa risultante debba essere giustificata a destra o a sinistra. Per default le stringhe sono giustificate a destra; il carattere - forza la giustificazione a sinistra.
  4. Un parametro numerico opzionale per la specifica della dimensione che indica di quanti caratteri (come minimo) debba essere lunga la stringa.
  5. Un parametro opzionale per indicare la precisione per indicare quante cifre decimali debbano essere visualizzate per i numeri in virgola mobile. Quando si usa questo parametro in una stringa si impone come una sorta di punto di cutoff, esso imposta un limite alla lunghezza della stringa.
  6. Una specifica di tipo che indica il tipo di dati dell'argomento. I possibili tipi sono:

    • % - il carattere percento. Nessun argomento è richiesto.
    • b - l'argomento è trattato come un intero e sarà presentato come numero binario.
    • c - l'argomento è trattato come un intero e sarà presentato come carattere ASCII del valore corrispondente.
    • d - l'argomento è trattato come un intero e sarà presentato come un numero decimale con segno.
    • e - l'argomento è reso con notazione scientifica (ad esempio 1.2e+2).
    • u - l'argomento è trattato come un intero e sarà presentato come un numero decimale senza segno.
    • f - l'argomento è trattato come un float e sarà presentato come un numero in virgola mobile (influenzato dalle impostazioni locali).
    • F - l'argomento è trattato come un numero float, e sarà presentato come un numero in virgola mobile (non influenzato dalle impostazioni locali). Disponibile da PHP 4.3.10 e PHP 5.0.3.
    • o - l'argomento è trattato come un intero e sarà presentato come un numero ottale.
    • s - l'argomento sarà trattato e presentato come una stringa.
    • x - l'argomento sarà trattato come un intero e presentato in forma esadecimale (con le lettere in minuscolo).
    • X - l'argomento è trattato come un intero e sarà presentato come un numero esadecimale (con le lettere maiuscole).

A partire dal PHP 4.0.6 la stringa di formato supporta lo scambio dei parametri. Eccone un esempio:

Example #1 Scambio dei parametri

<?php
$format 
"There are %d monkeys in the %s";
printf($format$num$location);
?>
Questo esempio visualizza: "There are 5 monkeys in the tree". Ma supponiamo di volere creare una stringa di formato in file a parte, perchè vogliamo rendere la procedura internazionale; e pertanto riscriviamo l'esempio come:

Example #2 Scambio dei parametri

<?php
$format 
"The %s contains %d monkeys";
printf($format$num$location);
?>
Ora abbiamo un problema. L'ordine dei segnaposto nella stringa di formato non coincide con l'ordine dei parametri. Si vorrebbe potere lasciare inalterato il codice e potere indicare a quale parametro si riferisce il segnaposto. Ciò può essere fatto modificando la stringa di formato come:

Example #3 Scambio dei parametri

<?php
$format 
"The %2\$s contains %1\$d monkeys";
printf($format$num$location);
?>
Un beneficio aggiuntivo è che si possono ripetere i segnaposto senza dovere ripetere i parametri. Ad esempio:

Example #4 Scambio di parametri

<?php
$format 
"The %2\$s contains %1\$d monkeys.
           That's a nice %2\$s full of %1\$d monkeys."
;
printf($format$num$location);
?>

Vedere anche printf(), sscanf(), fscanf(), vsprintf() e number_format().

Esempi

Example #5 Esempi di uso di printf()

<?php
$n 
=  43951789;
$u = -43951789;
$c 65// ASCII 65 is 'A'

// attenzione che i doppi %%, visualizzano il carattere '%' 
printf("%%b = '%b'\n"$n); // rappresentazione binaria
printf("%%c = '%c'\n"$c); // visualizza un carattere ASCII, coma la funzione chr()
printf("%%d = '%d'\n"$n); // rappresentazione di un intero standard
printf("%%e = '%e'\n"$n); // notazione scientifica
printf("%%u = '%u'\n"$n); // rappresentazione di un intero positivo privo di segno
printf("%%u = '%u'\n"$u); // rappresentazione di un intero negativo privo di segno
printf("%%f = '%f'\n"$n); // rappresentazine in virgola mobile
printf("%%o = '%o'\n"$n); // rappresentazione ottale
printf("%%s = '%s'\n"$n); // stringa
printf("%%x = '%x'\n"$n); // rappresentazione esadecimale (minuscolo)
printf("%%X = '%X'\n"$n); // rappresentazione esadecimale (maiuscolo)
printf("%%+d = '%+d'\n"$n); // indicazione del segno su un intero positivo
printf("%%+d = '%+d'\n"$u); // indicazione del segno su un intero negativo
?>

L'output di questo programma sarà:

%b = '10100111101010011010101101'
%c = 'A'
%d = '43951789'
%e = '4.39518e+7'
%u = '43951789'
%u = '4251015507'
%f = '43951789.000000'
%o = '247523255'
%s = '43951789'
%x = '29ea6ad'
%X = '29EA6AD'
%+d = '+43951789'
%+d = '-43951789'

Example #6 printf(): specifiche di stringa

<?php
$s 
'monkey';
$t 'many monkeys';

printf("[%s]\n",      $s); // output standard di stringa
printf("[%10s]\n",    $s); // accostamento a destra con spazi
printf("[%-10s]\n",   $s); // accostamento a sinistra con spazi
printf("[%010s]\n",   $s); // completamento con zero funziona anche con le stringhe
printf("[%'#10s]\n",  $s); // utilizza il carattere di riempimento  '#'
printf("[%10.10s]\n"$t); // accostamento a sinistra con taglio a 10 caratteri
?>

L'output di questo programma sarà:

[monkey]
[    monkey]
[monkey    ]
[0000monkey]
[####monkey]
[many monke]

Example #7 sprintf(): interi completati con zeri

<?php
$isodate 
sprintf("%04d-%02d-%02d"$year$month$day);
?>

Example #8 sprintf(): formattazione della moneta

<?php
$money1 
68.75;
$money2 54.35;
$money $money1 $money2;
// echo $money visualizzerà "123.1";
$formatted sprintf("%01.2f"$money);
// echo $formatted visualizzerà "123.10"
?>

Example #9 sprintf(): notazione scientifica

<?php
$number 
362525200;

echo 
sprintf("%.3e"$number); // visualizza 3.63e+8
?>


sscanf> <soundex
Last updated: Fri, 18 Jul 2008
 
add a note add a note User Contributed Notes
sprintf
ant at loadtrax dot com
18-Jun-2008 10:19
Rounding seems a little inconsistent, so beware:

$ php -a

php> print round(1.0*20*1.175/100,2);
0.24
php > print sprintf("%.2f",1.0*20*1.175/100);
0.23
php > print sprintf("%.0f",1.0*20*1.175);
24

I get round this by doing the round first, then doing the sprintf.
jaimthorn at yahoo dot com
11-Jun-2008 03:01
I needed a piece of code similar to the one Matt posted below, on the 10th of March, 2008.  However, I wasn't completely satisfied with Matt's code (sorry, Matt!  No offense intended!), because

1) I don't like to initialize variables when it's not really needed, and
2) it contains two bugs.

What are the bugs?

First, Matt's code tests for count($vars) > 0, but if $var == "Hello world!", then count($var) == 1, but the foreach() will crash because $var has to be an array.  So instead, my code tests for is_array($var).

Second, if a key in $vars is a prefix of any of the later keys in the array (like 'object' is the beginning of 'objective') then the str_replace messes things up.  This is no big deal if your keys are hard-coded and you can make sure the keys don't interfere, but in my code the keys are variable.  So I decided to first sort the array on a decreasing length of the key.

<?php

function cmp($a, $b)
{
    return
strlen($b) - strlen($a);
}

function
sprintf2($str, $vars, $char = '%')
{
    if(
is_array($vars))
    {
       
uksort($vars, "cmp");

        foreach(
$vars as $k => $v)
        {
           
$str = str_replace($char . $k, $v, $str);
        }
    }

    return
$str;
}

echo
sprintf2( 'Hello %your_name, my name is %my_name! I am %my_age, how old are you? I like %object and I want to %objective_in_life!'
            
, array( 'your_name'         => 'Matt'
                   
, 'my_name'           => 'Jim'
                   
, 'my_age'            => 'old'
                   
, 'object'            => 'women'
                   
, 'objective_in_life' => 'write code'
                   
)
             );

?>

If possible, and if you're willing, you can also embed the key fields in the text between percent-signs, rather than prefixing the keys with one.  Sorting is no longer necessary, and the execution time is less than half of the code above:

<?php

function sprintf3($str, $vars, $char = '%')
{
   
$tmp = array();
    foreach(
$vars as $k => $v)
    {
       
$tmp[$char . $k . $char] = $v;
    }
    return
str_replace(array_keys($tmp), array_values($tmp), $str);
}

echo
sprintf3( 'Hello %your_name%, my name is %my_name%! I am %my_age%, how old are you? I like %object% and I want to %objective_in_life%!'
            
, array( 'your_name'         => 'Matt'
                   
, 'my_name'           => 'Jim'
                   
, 'my_age'            => 'old'
                   
, 'object'            => 'women'
                   
, 'objective_in_life' => 'write code'
                   
)
             );
?>

If you're willing to embed the keys in the text, you may also be willing to embed the keys themselves in percent signs, thus shaving off another 30% of the execution time:

<?php

function sprintf4($str, $vars)
{
    return
str_replace(array_keys($vars), array_values($vars), $str);
}

echo
sprintf4( 'Hello %your_name%, my name is %my_name%! I am %my_age%, how old are you? I like %object% and I want to %objective_in_life%!'
            
, array( '%your_name%'         => 'Matt'
                   
, '%my_name%'           => 'Jim'
                   
, '%my_age%'            => 'old'
                   
, '%object%'            => 'women'
                   
, '%objective_in_life%' => 'write code'
                   
)
             );
?>

Of course, by now the sprintf function is no longer something you'd want to write to mum and dad about...
ranema at ubuntu dot polarhome dot com
30-Mar-2008 04:40
It's very comfortible for long Sql queries:

<?php
$_gQuery
= "UPDATE `x` SET `a` = %i AND `b` = '%s' WHERE `my` = '%s';"; // ........

mysql_query( sprintf( $_gQuery, 10, 'a', 'rrrr' ) );
?>

But if you have a short query, then it would be much faster to append your data by using `.`.

<?php
$_gQuery
= 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM `' . $_gName . '`;';
?>
matt
10-Mar-2008 05:13
Was looking for a assoc way of using sprintf but couldnt find one, probably wasnt looking hard enough so came up with this. Very very simple indeed...

<?php

function sprintf2($str='', $vars=array(), $char='%')
{
    if (!
$str) return '';
    if (
count($vars) > 0)
    {
        foreach (
$vars as $k => $v)
        {
           
$str = str_replace($char . $k, $v, $str);
        }
    }

    return
$str;
}

echo
sprintf2('Hello %your_name my name is %my_name! I am %my_age, how old are you? I like %object!', array(
   
'your_name' => 'Ben',
   
'my_name' => 'Matt',
   
'my_age' => '21',
   
'object' => 'food'
));

// Hello Ben my name is Matt! I am 21, how old are you? I like food!

?>

Looks nice anyway :)
andyhaslam at hotmail dot com
05-Feb-2008 05:46
An interesting bug, if you do the following:

$val = 2345.35;
$val = sprintf("%01.2f", $val);
echo $val;

Output is "2.00", instead of "2345.35". The solution is to use an intermediate variable:

$val = 2345.35;
$val2 = sprintf("%01.2f", $val);
$val = $val2;
echo $val;
scott dot gardner at mac dot com
10-Jan-2008 09:22
In the last example of Example#6, there is an error regarding the output.

printf("[%10.10s]\n", $t); // left-justification but with a cutoff of 10 characters

This outputs right-justified.

In order to output left-justified:

printf("[%-10.10s]\n", $t);
me at umarfarooq dot net
07-Sep-2007 07:29
/**
This function returns a formated  string with the legnth you specify
@string holds the string which you want to format
@len holds the length you want to format
**/
function formatString($string, $len)
{
    if (strlen($string) < $len)
    {
        $addchar=($len - strlen($string)) ;
        for ($i = 0; $i < $addchar; $i++)
        {
            $string=sprintf("$string%s", "0");
        }
    }
   
    if (strlen($string) > $len)
    {
        $string=substr($string,0,$len);
    }
   
    return $string;   
}
Thomas Breuss
11-May-2007 08:03
Note:
If you want to use % in sprintf, you have to "quote" it like %%.

Example:
echo sprintf("Green => %d%%'", 50);

Output:
Green => 50%
eagle at electric-force dot net
28-Mar-2007 08:25
Display an binary string like an Hex Editor.

<?php
function BinToHexView($binstr) {
   
$HexView = "";

   
$binpos = 0;
   
$binsize = strlen($binstr);
   
$binr = ( ($binsize-$binpos-16) > 16 ? 16 : $binsize-$binpos-16 );

    while (
$binr > 0) {
       
$hline = "";
       
$dline = "";
       
$HexView .= sprintf("%04x", $binpos);
        for (
$c=0;$c<$binr;$c++) {
           
$hline .= sprintf("%02x",ord($binstr[$binpos+$c]))." ";
        }
        for (
$c=0;$c<$binr;$c++) {
           
$ord = ord($binstr[$binpos+$c]);
           
$dline .= ( $ord<32 || $ord>126 ? "." : $binstr[$binpos+$c] );
        }
       
$HexView .= sprintf("  %-48s  %-16s\n", $hline, $dline);
       
$binpos += $binr;
       
$binr = ( ($binsize-$binpos-16) > 16 ? 16 : $binsize-$binpos-16 );
    }

    return
$HexView;
}
?>
29-Jan-2007 06:15
In response to juan at ecogomera dot com:

I think what you want is:

$x = 3327
$y=decbin($x);
echo $y."<br>";
$z = sprintf("%012d", $x);
echo $z;

3327
110011111111
000000003327

Right? You were double-converting the number. First to binary, then again to decimal. You should be converting the source number directly into the required base.
SWestrup
09-Nov-2006 07:46
In response to Anonymous, who claimed that:

  printf("[%s]\n", str_pad('Hello', 20));

and

  printf("[%-20s]\n", 'Hello');

are the same thing: you've missed the point.

They're only the same when the amount of padding is a known constant. When its a variable (or an expression), its often much more convenient to be able to write:

  printf("[%-*s]\n", 3*$n+2, "Hello");

than what you have to go through now, which is either:

  $t = 3*$n+2;
  printf("[%-{$t}s]\n","Hello");

or

  printf("[%s]\n", str_pad('Hello', 3*$n+2));
Anonymous
17-Oct-2006 12:04
In response to Fredrik Rambris in the com top domain:

<?php

//Your code:

printf("[%s]\n", str_pad('Hello', 20));

//Is the same as:

printf("[%-20s]\n", 'Hello');

?>
Fredrik Rambris in the com top domain
28-Sep-2006 10:48
The C implementation of printf (alteast in glibc) can handle field length as arguments like this:

printf("[%-*s]\n", (int)20, "Hello");

To have the same result in PHP you need to run

printf("[%s]\n, str_pad("Hello", 20) );

It would be nice if one could use the field length directly like in C.
Moore (at) Hs-Furtwangen (dot) De
12-Aug-2006 07:54
Here a litle function that might come handy one time:
It gives back a String and adds a <BR> (you can change it to <br />) to every line end. And it adds $num blanks to the front of the next line.

<?php
 
function nl2brnl($text, $num)
  {
   return
preg_replace("/\\r\\n|\\n|\\r/", sprintf("% -".(5+$num)."s","<BR>\\n"), $text);
  }

$a = " one\\n two\\r\\n three";

$b = nl2brnl($a, 2);

var_dump($b);

/* output will be:
string(30) " one<BR>
   two<BR>
   three"
*/

echo "  <P>\\n   ";
echo
$b

/* output will be:
  <P>
   one<BR>
   two<BR>
   three
*/
?>

Is helpfull for avouding code_soup.
bknakkerNO at SPAMgmail dot com
10-Aug-2006 10:54
Note that in PHP5 (.1.4 for me) sprintf will not use the __toString function of an object.

<?php
class pr{
private
$l;
public function
__construct($l)
{
$this->l=$l;
}
public function
__toString()
{
return
$this->l;
}
}
echo new
pr('This works!!'); //This will display 'This works!!'
echo sprintf(new pr('This doesnt')); // will display 'Object'
?>

Be careful with that!
Ulf Wostner
06-Aug-2006 06:35
<?php
#-----------------------------------------------------
# Viewing Two's Complement using sprintf formatting.
#-----------------------------------------------------
# Systems using Two's Complements have exactly one number that equals its own Two's Complement.
# On a 32-bit system look at  1000 0000 0000 0000  for  -2147483648
# Take the one's complement, to get 0111 1111 1111 1111, add 1
# to get the Two's Complement: 1000 0000 0000 0000
#  We are back to the original number, the so-called Weird Number for 32-bits.

# For a 64-bit system, format that number as binary, width 64, padded with 0's.

printf("%064b\n", -2147483648);

# Output with added spaces:
# 11111111 11111111 11111111 11111111 10000000 00000000 00000000 00000000

# And here is the Two's Complement on a 64-bit system.

printf("%064b\n", +2147483648);

# Output with added spaces:
# 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 10000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
# They share those last 32 bits, accounting for the 32-bit Weird Number.

#----------------------------------------------------------
# Is PHP running  32-bit or 64-bit?
#----------------------------------------------------------
# Sure, we can look at the max int, but  The Weird Number  also tells if we are in 32-bit, 64-bit, or ...

function getBitCount() {
 
$how_many_bits = 1$n = 2;
  while(
True) {
   
$how_many_bits += 1;   $n *= 2# powers of 2
    # matches its own two's complement? 
   
if( sprintf("%b", $n) == sprintf("%b", -$n)  )
      return
1 + $how_many_bits;
  }
  return;
}
?>
egingell at sisna dot com
26-Apr-2006 09:51
<?
/**
 * [string or int] vprint ( string $format [, mixed $ary [, bool $return]] )
 *
 * Closely mimics the functionality of sprintf(), printf(), vprintf(), and vsprintf().
 *
 * Replaces %[bcdeufFosxX] with each element of $ary
 *     See http://us3.php.net/manual/en/function.sprintf.php for details on replacement types.
 *
 * If there are not enough elements in $ary (or it is left out) to satisfy $format,
 *     it will be padded to the correct length.
 *
 * Since v*printf() doesn't mind having too many elements in the array, $format will be left alone.
 *
 * If $ary is a string, it will be recast into an array.
 *
 * If $return is set to a value considered to be false (0, '', null, false, and array()),
 *     then the output will be sent to STDOUT and the strlen() of the output string will be returned;
 *     otherwise, the output string will be returned.
 *
 * It's buggy when using the argument swapping functionality, unless you do it propperly.
 *
 * May break when using modifiers (%.4e, %02s, etc), unless you do it propperly.
 **/
function vprint($format, $ary = array(), $return = true) {
   
// Sanity?!
   
if (!is_array($ary)) $ary = array($ary);

   
// Find %n$n.
   
preg_match_all('#\\%[\\d]*\\$[bcdeufFosxX]#', $format, $matches);

   
// Weed out the dupes and count how many there are.
   
$counts = count(array_unique($matches[0]));

   
// Count the number of %n's and add it to the number of %n$n's.
   
$countf = preg_match_all('#\\%[bcdeufFosxX]#', $format, $matches) + $counts;

   
// Count the number of replacements.
   
$counta = count($ary);

    if (
$countf > $counta) {
       
// Pad $ary if there's not enough elements.
       
$ary = array_pad($ary, $countf, "&nbsp;");
    }

    if (
$return) {
        return
vsprintf($format, $ary);
    } else {
        return
vprintf($format, $ary);
    }
}

?>
mauf at franzoni dot info
16-Feb-2006 03:21
The format of floating values has been previously reporting as depending on platform (linux / windows) yet I see it changes within two linux systems depending on the version:
In V4.2.2 "%3.2" displays 3 integers and two decimals (i.e. the first digit represents just the number of integer digits), on V4.4.1 the same displays (and justifies the string to) a three character string (i.e. the first digit is the total lenght of the number, including the decimal dot).

Maybe someone may better specify which version this happens from.
darkfalconIV at hotmail dot com
18-Dec-2005 08:57
henke dot andersson

You can accomplish feeding it array if you use call_user_func_array. Not exactly a `clean' option, but it does work.
tim dot brouckaert dot NOSPAM at gmail dot com
12-Oct-2005 01:35
If you want to center align some text using the printf or sprintf functions, you can just use the following:

function center_text($word){
    $tot_width = 30;
    $symbol = "-";
    $middle = round($tot_width/2);
    $length_word = strlen($word);
    $middle_word = round($length_word / 2);
    $last_position = $middle + $middle_word;
    $number_of_spaces = $middle - $middle_word;

    $result = sprintf("%'{$symbol}{$last_position}s", $word);
        for ($i = 0; $i < $number_of_spaces; $i++){
            $result .= "$symbol";
        }
    return $result;
}

$string = "This is some text";
print center_text($string);

off course you can modify the function to use more arguments.
webmaster at cafe-clope dot net
15-Aug-2005 05:47
trying to fix the multibyte non-compliance of sprintf, I came to that :

<?php
function mb_sprintf($format) {
   
$argv = func_get_args() ;
   
array_shift($argv) ;
    return
mb_vsprintf($format, $argv) ;
}

function
mb_vsprintf($format, $argv) {
   
$newargv = array() ;
   
   
preg_match_all("`\%('.+|[0 ]|)([1-9][0-9]*|)s`U", $format, $results, PREG_SET_ORDER) ;
   
    foreach(
$results as $result) {
        list(
$string_format, $filler, $size) = $result ;
        if(
strlen($filler)>1)
           
$filler = substr($filler, 1) ;
        while(!
is_string($arg = array_shift($argv)))
           
$newargv[] = $arg ;
       
$pos = strpos($format, $string_format) ;
       
$format = substr($format, 0, $pos)
                  . (
$size ? str_repeat($filler, $size-strlen($arg)) : '')
                    .
str_replace('%', '%%', $arg)
                    .
substr($format, $pos+strlen($string_format))
                    ;
    }
       
    return
vsprintf($format, $newargv) ;
}

?>

handle with care :
1. that function was designed mostly for utf-8. i guess it won't work with any static mb encoding.
2. my configuration sets the mbstring.func_overload configuration directive to 7, so you may wish to replace substr, strlen, etc. with mb_* equivalents.
3. since preg_* doesn't complies with mb strings, I used a '.+' in the regexp to symbolize an escaped filler character. That means, %'xy5s pattern will match, unfortunately. It is recomended to remove the '+', unless you are intending to use an mb char as filler.
4. the filler fills at left, and only at left.
5. I couldn't succeed with a preg_replace thing : the problem was to use the differents lengths of the string arguements in the same replacement, string or callback. That's why the code is much longuer than I expected.
6. The pattern wil not match any %1\$s thing... just was too complicated for me.
7. Although it has been tested, and works fine within the limits above, this is much more a draft than a end-user function. I would enjoy any improvment.

The test code below shows possibilities, and explains the problem that occures with an mb string argument in sprintf.

<?php
header
("content-type:text/plain; charset=UTF-8") ;
$mb_string = "xéxàx" ;
echo
sprintf("%010s", $mb_string), " [octet-size: ", str_sizeof($mb_string) , " ; count: ", strlen(sprintf("%010s", $mb_string)), " characters]\n" ;
echo
mb_sprintf("%010s", $mb_string), " [octet-size: ", str_sizeof($mb_string) , " ; count: ", strlen(mb_sprintf("%010s", $mb_string)), " characters]\n" ;
echo
"\n" ;
echo
mb_sprintf("%''10s\n%'010s\n%'û10s\n%10d\n%'x10s\n%010s\n% 10s\n%010s\n%'1s\n", "zero", "one", "two", 3, "four", "ƒîve", "%s%i%x", "šéveñ", "eight") ;
?>
david at rayninfo dot co dot uk
17-Jun-2005 07:33
Using sprintf to force leading leading zeros

foreach (range(1, 10) as $v) {echo "<br>tag_".sprintf("%02d",$v);}

displays
tag_01
tag_02
tag_03
.. etc
ian dot w dot davis at gmail dot com
30-May-2005 03:03
Just to elaborate on downright's point about different meanings for %f, it appears the behavior changed significantly as of 4.3.7, rather than just being different on different platforms. Previously, the width specifier gave the number of characters allowed BEFORE the decimal. Now, the width specifier gives the TOTAL number of characters. (This is in line with the semantics of printf() in other languages.) See bugs #28633 and #29286 for more details.
Pacogliss
02-May-2005 08:08
Just a reminder for beginners : example 6 'printf("[%10s]\n",    $s);' only works (that is, shows out the spaces) if you put the html '<pre></pre>' tags ( head-scraping time saver ;-).
christian at wenz dot org
18-Apr-2005 08:20
@ henke dot andersson at comhem dot se: Use vprintf()/vsprintf() for that.
henke dot andersson at comhem dot se
15-Apr-2005 04:07
Mind that it doesn't allow you to use a array as multiple arguments like this:
<?php
printf
('%s %s',array('a','b')) ?>
downright at comcast dot net
31-Jan-2005 10:03
Just thought I'd give a heads up for anyone doing cross platform applications.

sprintf spacing is different numerically with Windows and Linux.

Linux aligned correctly:
$ol = sprintf ("%-6s|%11.2f|%11.2f|%11.2f|%11.2f|%11.2f|%11.2f|%11.2f|%11.2f\n",

Windows aligned correctly:
$ol = sprintf ("%-6s|%14.2f|%14.2f|%14.2f|%14.2f|%14.2f|%14.2f|%14.2f|%14.2f\n",

As you can see the strings are fine for spacing, however, the numbers need a difference of 3 in order to have the same amount of spaces.

I noticed this after using sprintf to format a header for a web app I was working on.  On windows it fit, however, when it came to linux it was MUCH larger than the header.
jrpozo at conclase dot net
21-Jan-2005 03:13
Be careful if you use the %f modifier to round decimal numbers as it (starting from 4.3.10) will no longer produce a float number if you set certain locales, so you can't accumulate the result. For example:

setlocale(LC_ALL, 'es_ES');
echo(sprintf("%.2f", 13.332) + sprintf("%.2f", 14.446))

gives 27 instead of 27.78, so use %F instead.
timo at frenay dot net
10-Jan-2005 06:58
Note that the documentation is unclear about the details of the sign specifier. First of all, the character for this is "+".

Also note that the following does NOT print "+00.00" as you might expect:

<?php
    printf
('%+02.2f', 0);
?>

The sign is included in the width. This can't be solved by increasing the width:

<?php
    printf
('%+03.2f', 0);
?>

This will put the padding 0 before the sign.
Here is a possible solution:

<?php
    $value
= 0;
   
printf('%s%02.2f', ($value < 0) ? '-' : '+', abs($value));
?>
Gkeeper80
11-Aug-2004 11:58
When using sprintf with padding, it's important to note that specifying the length of your padding does not restrict the length of your output.

For example:
$var = 'test';
$output sprintf("%03s", $var);

print $output;

Produces:
test

NOT:
est

This may seem intuitive for working with numbers, but not neccesarily when working with strings.
rex
15-Jun-2004 10:47
Note, if you are just looking for something to pad out a string consider str_pad.

From testing, it seems faster and was more intuitive to use (for example, making it pad the begining or end of a string... with sprintf you would have to use negative indexes)
php at sharpdreams dot com
08-May-2004 10:13
Note that when using the argument swapping, you MUST number every argument, otherwise sprintf gets confused. This only happens if you use number arguments first, then switch to a non-numbered, and then back to a numbered one.

<?php
$sql
= sprintf( "select * from %1\$s left join %2\$s on( %1\$s.id = %2\$s.midpoint ) where %1\$s.name like '%%%s%%' and %2\$s.tagname is not null", "table1", "table2", "bob" );
// Wont work:
// Sprintf will complain about not enough arguments.
$sql = sprintf( "select * from %1\$s left join %2\$s on( %1\$s.id = %2\$s.midpoint ) where %1\$s.name like '%%%3\$s%%' and %2\$s.tagname is not null", "table1", "table2", "bob" );
// Will work: note the %3\$s
?>
tobias at silverxnet dot de
17-Apr-2004 03:09
Regarding the previous posting:
I just wanted to give an explanation. This should be because the float to string / integer to string conversion (you are using a string, multiplying it with a float value what php automatically causes to convert the string to a float value). This is a general "problem" (or not), but not that hard to explain.
Where an integer or float starts with 0, in a string it does obviously with 1. So if you are using a string your value will increase by one (You started with a string, so it does not increase but contain the real result. If you start using a float value by not using '' around the value, you have to output the float value as well. This is just the PHP conversion.)

Try putting
$x = strval( $x );
after
$x = $x * 100;
and using your example again. You will see that the output will change to 13664 = 13664 because of the general string conversion. It seems that PHP is converting a float to a string by inceasing by one. By doing the same with intval instead of strval the output changes to 13663 = 13663.

! sprintf seems to behave wrong when using the conversation to an integer value and NOT doing the conversation at all. So use intval to convert to an integer value or strval to convert to a string value BEFORE using sprintf. This should be solving the problems.
kekec at kukac dot hu
29-Mar-2004 06:16
A really working one:
<?php
function cutzero($value) {
   return
preg_replace("/(\.?)0+$/", "", $value);
}
?>
05-Mar-2004 06:54
both of your cut-zero functions are just way too complicated. if it's a string where only the zeros at the end should be truncated, why not use a syntax as simple as rtrim("4.7000","0") ?
Rene dot Leonhardt at agritec24 dot com
16-May-2003 06:02
Your cutzero function could be faster ;-)
   return (double)$value;

But if you must have a function:
   return preg_replace('/0+$/', '', $value);
kouber at php dot net
08-May-2003 10:55
If you want to cut all the zeros off the end of a float, but not losing any sensitive information, use this:

<?
function cutzero($value) {
    return
preg_replace("/(\.\d+?)0+$/", "$1", $value)*1;
}
?>

Some examples:

<?
cutzero
("4.7600");     // returns 4.76
cutzero("4.7604")      // returns 4.7604
cutzero("4.7000");     // returns 4.7
cutzero("4.0000");     // returns 4
?>
info at nospam dot webtip dot dk
18-Feb-2003 01:06
If you want to format a phonenumber with spaces, use chunk_split() which splits a string into smaller chunks. It's much simpler than using sprintf.

$phone = "12345678";

chunk_split ($phone, 2);

will return 12 34 56 78
moritz dot geselle at invision-team dot de
02-Dec-2002 10:52
a little note to the argument swapping examples which took me a while to get:
if you use single quotes for the format string (like you should do, since there aren't any variable conversions to do as long as you don't need any special chars), the given examples won't work because of the backslash before the $ (needs to be escaped in double quoted strings - but not in single quoted!)

so this:

$format = "The %2\$s contains %1\$d monkeys";
printf($format,$num,$location);

with a single quoted format string would look like this:

$format = 'The %2$s contains %1$d monkeys';
printf($format,$num,$location);

(no escapes)

I hope that helps to avoid confusion ;)
no dot email dot address at example dot com
16-Sep-2002 02:29
Using argument swapping in sprintf() with gettext: Let's say you've written the following script:

<?php
$var
= sprintf(gettext("The %2\$s contains %1\$d monkeys"), 2, "cage");
?>

Now you run xgettext in order to generate a .po file. The .po file will then look like this:

#: file.php:9
#, ycp-format
msgid "The %2\\$s contains %1\\$d monkeys"
msgstr ""

Notice how an extra backslash has been added by xgettext.

Once you've translated the string, you must remove all backslashes from the ID string as well as the translation, so the po file will look like this:

#: file.php:9
#, ycp-format
msgid "The %2$s contains %1$d monkeys"
msgstr "Der er %1$d aber i %2$s"

Now run msgfmt to generate the .mo file, restart Apache to remove the gettext cache if necessary, and you're off.
abiltcliffe at bigfoot.com
10-Sep-2002 07:01
To jrust at rustyparts.com, note that if you're using a double-quoted string and *don't* escape the dollar sign with a backslash, $s and $d will be interpreted as variable references. The backslash isn't part of the format specifier itself but you do need to include it when you write the format string (unless you use single quotes).
Andrew dot Wright at spamsux dot atnf dot csiro dot au
03-Jul-2002 10:22
An error in my last example:
$b = sprintf("%30.s", $a);
will only add enough spaces before $a to pad the spaces + strlen($a) to 30 places.

My method of centering fixed text in a 72 character width space is:

$a = "Some string here";
$lwidth = 36; // 72/2
$b = sprintf("%".($lwidth + round(strlen($a)/2)).".s", $a);
eden_zero_x at hotmail dot com
26-Jun-2002 10:05
Well I came up with this one, extremely simple. instead of writing <span class="class">hello</a>
you can write: print class('class','hello'); using sprintf
-----------------------------
function class_ ($class, $text=false)
 {
    return sprintf ("<span class=\"%s\">%s</span>",
        $class,
        ($text ? $text : $class)
    );
 }
-----------------------------
shgyn at binabakti dot or dot id
01-Jun-2002 03:57
Previously submitted sci() function to get scientific representation of a number is not working with 0 and negative numbers. So, here is the modified version:

function sci($x, $d=-1) {
    $min=($x<0)?"-":"";
    $x=abs($x); 
    $e=floor(($x!=0)?log10($x):0);
    $x*=pow(10,-$e);
    $fmt=($d>=0)?".".$d:"";
    $e=($e>=0)?"+".sprintf("%02d",$e):"-".sprintf("%02d",-$e);
    return sprintf("$min%".$fmt."fe%s",$x,$e);
}
fuchschr at surfeu dot at
20-Feb-2002 04:54
To have a string with leading zeros use this:
$string_i = sprintf("%04s",$value)

Gives you an output with leading zeros and 4 digits.
i.e.
0001
0002
...
0010
an so on
cv at corbach dot de
10-Feb-2002 03:36
To make radu.rendec@ines.ro's excellent function work on signed numbers you must change the first line to:

$e = floor(log10(abs($x)));
anqmb(at)yahoo.co.jp
05-Dec-2001 12:51
Watch out the mysterious rounding rule.
<?php
$a
= 4.5;
$b = sprintf("%d",$a);
$c = 4.5;
$d = sprintf("%.0f",$c);
$e = 0.45;
$f = sprintf("%.1f",$e);
print (
"$b,$d,$f\n");
?>

The code above prints "4,5,0.5".
(Perl version prints "4,4,0.5".)
keeper at odi dot com dot br
27-Nov-2001 05:26
Took me a while to find this out.
hope will save someones time.
IT ADD A CARACRER TO THE END OF A STRING

$x = sprintf("%'x-10s", "a");
echo $x;
tjchamberlain.hotmail@com
26-Mar-2001 08:16
It is worth noting that "%5.2f" will result in a string 8 characters long (5 then the '.' then 2), not 5 characters as you might expect.
prolixmp3 at navigators dot lv
23-Mar-2001 06:55
If you are going to create a counter which uses _symbols_ before actual digits (see, f.e., SpyLog.com counters - they are filling space with "." before, so the count like 12345 looks like "........12345"), you can use the following:

$txt = "Abracadabra"; // actual string
$fit = 16; // how many digits to use
$fill = "."; // what to fill
$digits = sprintf ("%'{$fill}{$fit}s", $txt);

Paul (a.k.a. Mr.Prolix)
voudras at nospam dot swiftslayer dot org
17-Nov-2000 02:58
Little note about sprintf and its ilk.
if you attempt something like
$string = "dingy%sflem%dwombat";
$nbr = 5;
$name = "voudras";

$msg = sprintf("%d $string %s", $nbr, $name);

sprintf will complain about a lack in the number of arguments, this would be because of the %'s in the actual string. This can be a great benifit, but is also rather confusing if you dont realize this feature, and are passing questionable variables to sprintf (for, say perhaps logging). One way around this is using
ereg_replace("%","%%", $string); before
sending it off to sprintf. This is actually how i came across this as a problem - i had realized some time ago that i would have to test my $string for
%'s, but when running the %->%% replacement on a very large serialized object, my application timed out.
    My solution was to use
sprintf("%d %s %s", $nbr, $string, $name);
but, there was a reason i originally had done this the other way - i suppose i'll find out soon enough

sscanf> <soundex
Last updated: Fri, 18 Jul 2008
 
 
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