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C stdio snprintf() Function

❮ C stdio Library


Example

Write a formatted string into a char array:

char destination[50];
snprintf(destination, 50, "Hello %s!", "World");
printf("%s", destination);
Try it Yourself »

Definition and Usage

The snprintf() function writes a formatted string followed by a \0 null terminating character into a char array.

The snprintf() function is defined in the <stdio.h> header file.

The format string can contain format specifiers which describe where and how to represent additional arguments that are passed into the function. Details about format specifiers can be found on the printf() reference page.


Syntax

snprintf(char * destination, size_t * size, const char * format, arg1, arg2...);

Parameter Values

Parameter Description
destination Required. A char array to which the formatted string is written.
size Required. Specifies the size of the destination array. This function will write at most this number of characters into the array, including the null terminating character.
format Required. A string representing the format of the data to be written to the array.
arg1, arg2... Optional. Any number of additional arguments, their values can be formatted and written to the destination array using the specifiers in the format argument.

Technical Details

Returns: An int value representing the number of characters that were intended to be written to the array (excluding the null terminating character). If this is greater than or equal to the size argument then there are some characters that could not be written to the array. If an error occurred then it returns a negative number.

❮ C stdio Library

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