sprintf

sprintf

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Stores formatted output in a string buffer

 #include <stdio.h> int sprintf ( char * restrict dest , const char * restrict format , ... ); 

The sprintf( ) function is similar to snprintf( ), except that it has no parameter to limit the number of characters written to the destination buffer. As a result, using it means risking buffer overflows, especially because the length of the output depends on the current locale as well as input variables. Use snprintf( ) instead.

Example

 double x = 1234.5, y = 678.9, z = -753.1, a = x * y + z; char buffer[80]; int output_len = 0; output_len = sprintf( buffer, "For the input values %lf, %lf, and %lf, "                        "the result was %lf.\n",                        x, y, z, a ); puts( buffer ); if ( output_len >= 80 )   fprintf( stderr, "Output string overflowed by %d characters.\n"                    "The variables x, y, z and a may have been corrupted:\n"                    "x now contains %lf, y %lf, z %lf, and a %lf.\n",                     output_len - 79, x, y, z, a ); 

This code produces the following output:

 For the input values 1234.500000, 678.900000, and -753.100000, the result was  837348.950000. Output string overflowed by 14 characters. The variables x, y, z and a may have been corrupted: x now contains 1234.500000, y 678.900000, z -736.004971, and a 0.000000. 

See Also

printf( ), fprintf( ), snprintf( ), declared in stdio.h; vprintf( ), vfprintf( ), vsprintf( ), vsnprintf( ), declared in stdarg.h; the wide-character functions: wprintf( ), fwprintf( ), swprintf( ), declared in stdio.h and wchar.h; and vwprintf( ), vfwprintf( ), and vswprintf( ), declared in stdarg.h; the scanf( ) input functions. Argument conversion in the printf( ) family of functions is described in detail under printf( ) in this chapter.