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                                    sprintf

   (PHP 3, PHP 4 )
   sprintf -- Return a formatted string

Description

   string sprintf ( string format [, mixed args])

   Returns a string produced according to the formatting string format.

   The format string is composed of zero or more directives: ordinary
   characters (excluding %) that are copied directly to the result, and
   conversion specifications, each of which results in fetching its own
   parameter. This applies to both sprintf() and printf().

   Each conversion specification consists of a percent sign (%), followed
   by one or more of these elements, in order:

    1. An optional padding specifier that says what character will be
       used for padding the results to the right string size. This may be
       a space character or a 0 (zero character). The default is to pad
       with spaces. An alternate padding character can be specified by
       prefixing it with a single quote ('). See the examples below.
    2. An optional alignment specifier that says if the result should be
       left-justified or right-justified. The default is right-justified;
       a - character here will make it left-justified.
    3. An optional number, a width specifier that says how many
       characters (minimum) this conversion should result in.
    4. An optional precision specifier that says how many decimal digits
       should be displayed for floating-point numbers. This option has no
       effect for other types than float. (Another function useful for
       formatting numbers is number_format().)
    5. A type specifier that says what type the argument data should be
       treated as. Possible types:

       % - a literal percent character. No argument is required.
   b - the argument is treated as an integer, and presented as a binary
   number.
   c - the argument is treated as an integer, and presented as the
   character with that ASCII value.
   d - the argument is treated as an integer, and presented as a (signed)
   decimal number.
   u - the argument is treated as an integer, and presented as an
   unsigned decimal number.
   f - the argument is treated as a float, and presented as a
   floating-point number.
   o - the argument is treated as an integer, and presented as an octal
   number.
       s - the argument is treated as and presented as a string.
   x - the argument is treated as an integer and presented as a
   hexadecimal number (with lowercase letters).
   X - the argument is treated as an integer and presented as a
   hexadecimal number (with uppercase letters).

   As of PHP version 4.0.6 the format string supports argument
   numbering/swapping. Here is an example:

   Example 1. Argument swapping
   <?php
   $format = "There are %d monkeys in the %s";
   printf($format, $num, $location);
   ?>
   This might output, "There are 5 monkeys in the tree". But imagine we
   are creating a format string in a separate file, commonly because we
   would like to internationalize it and we rewrite it as:

   Example 2. Argument swapping
   <?php
   $format = "The %s contains %d monkeys";
   printf($format, $num, $location);
   ?>
   We now have a problem. The order of the placeholders in the format
   string does not match the order of the arguments in the code. We would
   like to leave the code as is and simply indicate in the format string
   which arguments the placeholders refer to. We would write the format
   string like this instead:

   Example 3. Argument swapping
   <?php
   $format = "The %2\$s contains %1\$d monkeys";
   printf($format, $num, $location);
   ?>
   An added benefit here is that you can repeat the placeholders without
   adding more arguments in the code. For example:

   Example 4. Argument swapping
   <?php
   $format = "The %2\$s contains %1\$d monkeys.
              That's a nice %2\$s full of %1\$d monkeys.";
   printf($format, $num, $location);
   ?>

   See also printf(), sscanf(), fscanf(), vsprintf(), and
   number_format().

Examples

   Example 5. sprintf(): zero-padded integers
   <?php
   $isodate = sprintf("%04d-%02d-%02d", $year, $month, $day);
   ?>

   Example 6. sprintf(): formatting currency
   <?php
   $money1 = 68.75;
   $money2 = 54.35;
   $money = $money1 + $money2;
   // echo $money will output "123.1";
   $formatted = sprintf("%01.2f", $money);
   // echo $formatted will output "123.10"
   ?>
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