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printf

Format and print data

command Shell UtilitiesScriptingText Processing

Overview

Formats and prints data according to a specified FORMAT string, similar to the C printf function. It offers more control over output formatting than `echo` and always interprets backslash escapes.

Syntax

printf FORMAT [ARGUMENT]...

Common Options

FORMAT string

A string containing literal characters, backslash escapes (e.g., \n, \t), and format specifiers (e.g., %s, %d, %.2f).

%s

Format specifier for a string.

%d, %i

Format specifier for a signed decimal integer.

%f

Format specifier for a floating-point number (decimal notation).

%x, %X

Format specifier for a hexadecimal integer (lowercase or uppercase).

%c

Format specifier for a single character.

%%

Literal percent sign.

Width/Precision

Modifiers like %10s (min width 10), %.2f (2 decimal places), %-10s (left-justify).

Note

`printf` reuses the FORMAT string if more ARGUMENTs are provided than specifiers. It does not automatically add a newline; use \n.

Examples

$ printf "Name: %s, Age: %d\n" "Alice" 30

Prints "Name: Alice, Age: 30" followed by a newline.

$ printf "%-10s | %03d\n" "CPU" 7 "RAM" 45

Formats output in columns: "CPU | 007\nRAM | 045".

$ printf "Value: %.2f\n" 123.4567

Prints "Value: 123.46".

$ printf "Hex: %#x, Octal: %#o\n" 16 16

Prints "Hex: 0x10, Octal: 020" (with base prefixes).

$ printf "An important message" >&2

Redirects the message to standard error (stderr).

$ printf "Var: %s\n" "${vars[@]}"

Iterates through array elements, printing each on a new line prefixed by "Var: ".

$ printf 'Current time: %(%T)T\n' -1

(Bash specific) Prints current time, e.g., "Current time: 14:30:55".

$ printf 'The item is \'%s\'.\n' "book"

Prints "The item is 'book'." demonstrating single quote escaping.

Related Commands

grep

Print lines matching a pattern

less

Opposite of more; view file content paginated

head

Output the first part of files

tail

Output the last part of files

awk

Pattern scanning and processing language

sed

Stream editor for filtering and transforming text

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