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sscanf> <soundex
Last updated: Fri, 19 Jun 2009

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sprintf

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

sprintfDevuelve una cadena con formato

Descripción

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

Devuelve una cadena producida de acuerdo con la cadena de formato formato .

Lista de parámetros

formato

La cadena de formato se compone de cero o más directivas: caracteres ordinarios (excluyendo %) que son copiados directamente en el resultado, y unas especificaciones de conversión, cada una de las cuales produce una búsqueda por su propio parámetro. Esto se aplica tanto en sprintf() como en printf().

Cada especificación de conversión consiste de un signo de porcentaje (%), seguido por uno o más de los siguientes elementos, en orden:

  1. Un indicador de signo opcional que obliga a que se use un determinado signo (- o +) en un número. De forma predeterminada, sólo el signo - es usado en un número si éste es negativo. Este indicador obliga a los números positivos a que tengan también el signo + adjunto, comportamiento que se agregó en PHP 4.3.0.
  2. Un indicador de relleno opcional, que dice qué caracter será usado para adaptar el resultado al tamaño de cadena apropiado. Este puede ser un caracter de espacio, o un 0 (caracter cero). El comportamiento predeterminado es rellenar con espacios. Un caracter de relleno alternativo puede especificarse al colocar una comilla sencilla (') al comienzo. Vea los ejemplos más adelante.
  3. Un indicador de alineamiento opcional que dice si el resultado debe alinearse a la izquierda o a la derecha. El comportamiento predeterminado es alinear a la derecha; un caracter - en este lugar hace que la alineación sea a la izquierda.
  4. Un número opcional, un indicador de ancho que dice cuántos caracteres (como mínimo) debe producir la conversión.
  5. Un indicador de precisión opcional que dice cuántos dígitos decimales deben mostrarse para los números de punto flotante. Cuando se usa este indicador con una cadena, actúa como un punto de corte, indicando un límite máximo de caracteres para la cadena.
  6. Un indicador de tipo que especifica el tipo bajo el que deben tratarse los datos del argumento. Los posibles tipos son:

    • % - un caracter de porcentaje literal. No requiere argumento.
    • b - el argumento es tratado como un entero, presentado como un número binario.
    • c - el argumento es tratado como un entero, y presentado como el caracter con ese valor ASCII.
    • d - el argumento es tratado como un entero, y presentado como un número decimal (con signo).
    • e - el argumento es tratado como notación científica (p.ej. 1.2e+2). El especificador de precisión indica el número de dígitos después del punto decimal a partir de PHP 5.2.1. En versiones anteriores, era tomado como el número de dígitos significativos (uno menos).
    • u - el argumento es tratado como un entero, y presentado como un número decimal sin signo.
    • f - el argumento es tratado como un flotante, y presentado como un número de punto flotante (teniendo en cuenta la localidad).
    • F - el argumento es tratado como un flotante, y presentado como un número de punto flotante (no tiene en cuenta la localidad). Disponible desde PHP 4.3.10 y PHP 5.0.3.
    • o - el argumento es tratado como un entero, y presentado como un número octal.
    • s - el argumento es tratado y presentado como una cadena.
    • x - el argumento es tratado como un entero y presentado como un número hexadecimal (con letras minúsculas).
    • X - el argumento es tratado como un entero y presentado como un número hexadecimal (con letras mayúsculas).

La cadena de formato soporta la numeración/intercambio de argumentos. He aquí un ejemplo:

Example #1 Intercambio de argumentos

<?php
$formato 
'Hay %d monos en el %s';
printf($formato$num$ubicacion);
?>

Esto podría imprimir, "Hay 5 monos en el árbol". Pero imagine que creamos una cadena de formato en un archivo separado, generalmente por que queremos implementar un mecanismo de internacionalización, y re-escribimos el código:

Example #2 Intercambio de argumentos

<?php
$formato 
'El %s contiene %d monos';
printf($formato$num$ubicacion);
?>

Ahora tenemos un problema. El orden de los recipientes en la cadena de formato no coincide con el orden de los argumentos en el código. Quisiéramos dejar el código tal como está, y simplemente indicar en la cadena de formato cuáles argumentos están siendo referidos por los recipientes. Entonces re-escribiríamos la cadena de formato de esta forma:

Example #3 Intercambio de argumentos

<?php
$formato 
'El %2$s contiene %1$d monos';
printf($formato$num$ubicacion);
?>

Un beneficio adicional de esto es que puede repetir los recipientes sin agregar más argumentos en el código. Por ejemplo:

Example #4 Intercambio de argumentos

<?php
$formato 
'El %2$s contiene %1$d monos.
            Se trata de un bonito %2$s lleno con %1$d monos.'
;
printf($formato$num$ubicacion);
?>

args

...

Valores retornados

Devuelve una cadena producida de acuerdo a la cadena de formato formato .

Registro de cambios

Versión Descripción
4.0.6 Se agregó el soporte para el intercambio y la numeración de argumentos

Ejemplos

Example #5 printf(): ejemplos varios

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

// note el doble %%, esto imprime un caracter '%' literal
printf("%%b = '%b'\n"$n); // representación binaria
printf("%%c = '%c'\n"$c); // imprime el caracter ascii, igual que la función chr()
printf("%%d = '%d'\n"$n); // representación de entero estándar
printf("%%e = '%e'\n"$n); // notación científica
printf("%%u = '%u'\n"$n); // representación entera sin signo de un entero positivo
printf("%%u = '%u'\n"$u); // representación entera sin signo de un entero negativo
printf("%%f = '%f'\n"$n); // representación en punto flotante
printf("%%o = '%o'\n"$n); // representación octal
printf("%%s = '%s'\n"$n); // representación de cadena
printf("%%x = '%x'\n"$n); // representación hexadecimal (minúsculas)
printf("%%X = '%X'\n"$n); // representación hexadecimal (mayúsculas)

printf("%%+d = '%+d'\n"$n); // indicador de signo en un entero positivo
printf("%%+d = '%+d'\n"$u); // indicador de signo en un entero negativo
?>

El resultado del ejemplo seria:

%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(): indicadores de cadena

<?php
$s 
'mono';
$t 'varios monos';

printf("[%s]\n",      $s); // salida de cadena estándar
printf("[%10s]\n",    $s); // alineación a derecha con espacios
printf("[%-10s]\n",   $s); // alineación a izquierda con espacios
printf("[%010s]\n",   $s); // el relleno con ceros funciona con cadenas también
printf("[%'#10s]\n",  $s); // usar el caracter de relleno '#'
printf("[%10.10s]\n"$t); // alineación a izquierda pero con un corte de 10 caracteres
?>

El resultado del ejemplo seria:

[mono]
[      mono]
[mono      ]
[000000mono]
[######mono]
[varios mon]

Example #7 sprintf(): enteros con relleno de ceros

<?php
$fecha_iso 
sprintf("%04d-%02d-%02d"$anyo$mes$dia);
?>

Example #8 sprintf(): formato de valores monetarios

<?php
$dinero1 
68.75;
$dinero2 54.35;
$dinero $dinero1 $dinero2;
// echo $dinero imprimiría "123.1";
$con_formato sprintf("%01.2f"$dinero);
// echo $con_formato imprime "123.10"
?>

Example #9 sprintf(): notación científica

<?php
$numero 
362525200;

echo 
sprintf("%.3e"$numero); // imprime 3.625e+8
?>

Ver también

  • printf() - Imprimir una cadena con formato
  • sscanf() - Trocea la entrada desde una cadena según un formato dado
  • fscanf() - Procesa la entrada desde un archivo de acuerdo a un formato
  • vsprintf() - Devuelve una cadena con formato
  • number_format() - Dar formato a un número con los miles agrupados



sscanf> <soundex
Last updated: Fri, 19 Jun 2009
 
add a note add a note User Contributed Notes
sprintf
viktor at textalk dot com
18-Feb-2009 04:16
A more complete and working version of mb_sprintf and mb_vsprintf. It should work with any "ASCII preserving" encoding such as UTF-8 and all the ISO-8859 charsets. It handles sign, padding, alignment, width and precision. Argument swapping is not handled.

<?php
if (!function_exists('mb_sprintf')) {
  function
mb_sprintf($format) {
     
$argv = func_get_args() ;
     
array_shift($argv) ;
      return
mb_vsprintf($format, $argv) ;
  }
}
if (!
function_exists('mb_vsprintf')) {
 
/**
   * Works with all encodings in format and arguments.
   * Supported: Sign, padding, alignment, width and precision.
   * Not supported: Argument swapping.
   */
 
function mb_vsprintf($format, $argv, $encoding=null) {
      if (
is_null($encoding))
         
$encoding = mb_internal_encoding();

     
// Use UTF-8 in the format so we can use the u flag in preg_split
     
$format = mb_convert_encoding($format, 'UTF-8', $encoding);

     
$newformat = ""; // build a new format in UTF-8
     
$newargv = array(); // unhandled args in unchanged encoding

     
while ($format !== "") {
     
       
// Split the format in two parts: $pre and $post by the first %-directive
        // We get also the matched groups
       
list ($pre, $sign, $filler, $align, $size, $precision, $type, $post) =
           
preg_split("!\%(\+?)('.|[0 ]|)(-?)([1-9][0-9]*|)(\.[1-9][0-9]*|)([%a-zA-Z])!u",
                      
$format, 2, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE) ;

       
$newformat .= mb_convert_encoding($pre, $encoding, 'UTF-8');
       
        if (
$type == '') {
         
// didn't match. do nothing. this is the last iteration.
       
}
        elseif (
$type == '%') {
         
// an escaped %
         
$newformat .= '%%';
        }
        elseif (
$type == 's') {
         
$arg = array_shift($argv);
         
$arg = mb_convert_encoding($arg, 'UTF-8', $encoding);
         
$padding_pre = '';
         
$padding_post = '';
         
         
// truncate $arg
         
if ($precision !== '') {
           
$precision = intval(substr($precision,1));
            if (
$precision > 0 && mb_strlen($arg,$encoding) > $precision)
             
$arg = mb_substr($precision,0,$precision,$encoding);
          }
         
         
// define padding
         
if ($size > 0) {
           
$arglen = mb_strlen($arg, $encoding);
            if (
$arglen < $size) {
              if(
$filler==='')
                 
$filler = ' ';
              if (
$align == '-')
                 
$padding_post = str_repeat($filler, $size - $arglen);
              else
                 
$padding_pre = str_repeat($filler, $size - $arglen);
            }
          }
         
         
// escape % and pass it forward
         
$newformat .= $padding_pre . str_replace('%', '%%', $arg) . $padding_post;
        }
        else {
         
// another type, pass forward
         
$newformat .= "%$sign$filler$align$size$precision$type";
         
$newargv[] = array_shift($argv);
        }
       
$format = strval($post);
      }
     
// Convert new format back from UTF-8 to the original encoding
     
$newformat = mb_convert_encoding($newformat, $encoding, 'UTF-8');
      return
vsprintf($newformat, $newargv);
  }
}
?>
splogamurugan at gmail dot com
06-Feb-2009 01:59
$format = 'There are %1$d monkeys in the %s and %s ';
printf($format, 100, 'Chennai', 'Bangalore');

Expecting to output
"There are 100 monkeys in the Chennai and bangalore"

But, this will output
"There are 100 monkeys in the 100 and Chennai"

Because, the second and Third specifiers takes 1rst and 2nd arguments. Because it is not assigned with any arguments.
remy dot damour at -please-no-spam-laposte dot net
15-Jan-2009 07:15
With printf() and sprintf() functions, escape character is not backslash '\' but rather '%'.

Ie. to print '%' character you need to escape it with itself:
<?php
printf
('%%%s%%', 'koko'); #output: '%koko%'
?>
MelTraX
05-Nov-2008 09:40
<?php
 
// parses a string meant for printf and returns an array of found parameters (or NULL if it contains syntax errors)
 
function parsePrintfParameters($string) {
   
$valid = '/^(?:%%|%(?:[0-9]+\$)?[+-]?(?:[ 0]|\'.)?-?[0-9]*(?:\.[0-9]+)?[bcdeufFosxX])/';
   
$originalString = $string;

   
$result = array();
    while(
strlen($string)) {
      if(!
$string = preg_replace('/^[^%]*/', '', $string))
        break;

      if(
preg_match($valid, $string, $matches)) {
       
$result[] = $matches[0];
       
$string = substr($string, strlen($matches[0]));
      } else {
       
error(sprintf('"%s" has an error near "%s".', $originalString, $string));
        return
NULL;
      }
    }
    return
$result;
  }
?>
savannah at seznam dot cz
12-Oct-2008 11:29
If you have problems using utf-8 with string paddings, you can use this function:

<?php
/**
 * Formats string using sprintf, but correctly handles %s  with space paddings
 *
 * uses conversion to iso-8859-2 and back
 *
 * it is, however, much slower, so use only when needed!
 *
 * @param string $format
 */
function utf_8_sprintf ($format) {
 
$args = func_get_args();

  for (
$i = 1; $i < count($args); $i++) {
   
$args [$i] = iconv('UTF-8', 'ISO-8859-2', $args [$i]);
  }
 
  return
iconv('ISO-8859-2', 'UTF-8', call_user_func_array('sprintf', $args));
}

// test

echo sprintf ("[%-20s]\n", 'escrzyaie'); //  how it should look without special chars
echo sprintf ("[%-20s]\n", 'ěščřžýáíé'); // not correctly handled by php
echo utf_8_sprintf ("[%-20s]\n", 'ěščřžýáíé'); // using above function

/*
produces:
[escrzyaie           ]
[ěščřžýáíé  ]
[ěščřžýáíé           ]
*/

?>
the trick is to convert arguments to iso8859-2 and result back to utf-8.
php at mikeboers dot com
01-Oct-2008 08:42
And continuing on the same theme of a key-based sprintf...

I'm roughly (I can see a couple cases where it comes out wierd) copying the syntax of Python's string formatting with a dictionary. The improvement over the several past attempts is that this one still respects all of the formating options, as you can see in my example.

And the error handling is really crappy (just an echo). I just threw this together so do with it what you will. =]

<?php

function sprintf_array($string, $array)
{
   
$keys    = array_keys($array);
   
$keysmap = array_flip($keys);
   
$values  = array_values($array);
   
    while (
preg_match('/%\(([a-zA-Z0-9_ -]+)\)/', $string, $m))
    {   
        if (!isset(
$keysmap[$m[1]]))
        {
            echo
"No key $m[1]\n";
            return
false;
        }
       
       
$string = str_replace($m[0], '%' . ($keysmap[$m[1]] + 1) . '$', $string);
    }
   
   
array_unshift($values, $string);
   
var_dump($values);
    return
call_user_func_array('sprintf', $values);
}

echo
sprintf_array('4 digit padded number: %(num)04d ', array('num' => 42));

?>

Cheers!
ant at loadtrax dot com
18-Jun-2008 09:19
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 02:01
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 03:40
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", $t);
me at umarfarooq dot net
07-Sep-2007 06:29
/**
This function returns a formated  string with the legnth you specify
@string holds the string which you want to format
@len holds the length you want to format
**/
function formatString($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 07:03
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 07:25
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
16-Oct-2006 11:04
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 09:48
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 06:54
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 09:54
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 05:35
<?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 08:51
<?
/**
 * [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 12:35
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 04:47
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 = "xxx" ;
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%'10s\n%10d\n%'x10s\n%010s\n% 10s\n%010s\n%'1s\n", "zero", "one", "two", 3, "four", "ve", "%s%i%x", "ve", "eight") ;
?>
david at rayninfo dot co dot uk
17-Jun-2005 06:33
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 02:03
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 07:08
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 07:20
@ henke dot andersson at comhem dot se: Use vprintf()/vsprintf() for that.
henke dot andersson at comhem dot se
15-Apr-2005 03:07
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 10:58
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 09:47
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 09:13
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 02:09
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 05:16
A really working one:
<?php
function cutzero($value) {
   return
preg_replace("/(\.?)0+$/", "", $value);
}
?>
05-Mar-2004 06:54
both of your cut-zero functions are just way too complicated. if it's a string where only the zeros at the end should be truncated, why not use a syntax as simple as rtrim("4.7000","0") ?
Rene dot Leonhardt at agritec24 dot com
16-May-2003 05:02
Your cutzero function could be faster ;-)
   return (double)$value;

But if you must have a function:
   return preg_replace('/0+$/', '', $value);
kouber at php dot net
08-May-2003 09:55
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 01:29
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 06:01
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 09:22
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", $a);
eden_zero_x at hotmail dot com
26-Jun-2002 09:05
Well I came up with this one, extremely simple. instead of writing <span class="class">hello</a>
you can write: print class('class','hello'); using sprintf
-----------------------------
function class_ ($class, $text=false)
 {
    return sprintf ("<span class=\"%s\">%s</span>",
        $class,
        ($text ? $text : $class)
    );
 }
-----------------------------
shgyn at binabakti dot or dot id
01-Jun-2002 02:57
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 07:16
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, 19 Jun 2009
 
 
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