C Programming: Field-Width Specifier and Formatting Integers

Field Width Specifier in C Programming

• The field-width specifier in a C program determines the minimum number of characters to be printed out.

printf Statement

• In the statement printf("Area = %4d", area);, the '4' represents the minimum field width, specifying that the output should be at least 4 characters wide.

Field Width and Padding

• If the value of the variable 'area' is 8 and the format specifier is printf("%4d", area);, two spaces will be padded before the 8 on the screen to ensure the output is at least 4 characters wide.

Output Formatting

• The output 'Area = 0025' demonstrates that two extra spaces are added before 25 because of the specified minimum field width.

Format Specifier in printf

• The 'd' in %4d signifies that the argument is an integer to be printed as a decimal value.

C Programming

• The last row of the table demonstrates that C can format output values to a specified width.

Floating Point Number Formatting

• When formatting floating point numbers, note that the precision value specifies the number of digits after the decimal point.

Format Specifier for Floating Point Values

• The general form for the format specifier of a floating point value is %m.nf, where m is the minimum field width and n is the precision.

Zero Padding for Smaller Numbers

• When a zero is always printed before the decimal point in numbers smaller than one, it indicates zero padding.

printf Statement with Floating Point Value

• In the statement printf ("Height = 6.2f", height);, the '6' represents the precision specifier, indicating that the output should have a precision of 2 digits after the decimal point.

Learn how to use field-width specifiers in C programming to define the number of columns used to display a value on the screen. Understand how to format integers by adding a number between the % and d in the printf format string.