CODEWITHSUNDEEP
cprintf
user1762571
user1762571

Reputation: 1949

Return value of printf in C?

My Code:

int main() {
  int x = 10, y;
  y = printf("x = %d\n", x);
  printf("y = %d\n", y);
  return 0;
}

Output:

x = 10
y = 7

I know printf returns the number of character when we print string. But why is returning 7 when printing 10. what is the return value of printf when it prints int ?

Possible Duplicate: Return value of printf() function in C

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1480

Answers (4)

Grijesh Chauhan
Grijesh Chauhan

Reputation: 58271

Read: int printf ( const char * format, ... );

On success, the total number of characters written is returned.

for x = 10 in your code first printf: 

printf("x = %d\n", x);

prints seven chars x = 10\n, and return 7 that is received in y: 

    x = 10\n
    1234567 
     ^ ^  ^- new line char \n
     | |--spaces

remember \n (new line)is single char, and space is single char.

Upvotes: 3

jh314
jh314

Reputation: 27792

Like you said, "printf returns the number of character when we print string".

"x = 10\n" has 7 chars. (Namely, these: 'x',' ','=',' ','1','0','\n').

Thus, y is set to 7.

Upvotes: 5

Rainer Liao
Rainer Liao

Reputation: 223

"x = %d\n" Of course there are 7 characters. Notice there are 2 "space",1 "%" and 1"d", remember "\n" is a whole . You can try other sentences. such as z = printf("x = %d,asd\n",x); or sth. like that. The answer is 11. I think such questions can be done by just one more line codes .

Upvotes: -1

MasterHD
MasterHD

Reputation: 2384

The length of the string:

"x = 10\n"

(not including double quotes) is 7 characters. That is what is being stored in y. The white spaces and '\n' are also each just 1 character.

Upvotes: 1

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