in c printf() returns what?
+1
A:
It returns the number of characters printed. See man fprintf for simple questions like this.
From the man page:
These functions return the number of characters printed (not including the trailing '\0' used to end output to strings) or a negative value if an output error occurs, except for snprintf() and vsnprintf(), which return the number of characters that would have been printed if the n were unlimited (again, not including the final '\0').
Paul R
2010-04-28 08:43:28
+4
A:
printf returns:
- On success, the total number of characters written.
- On failure, a negative number.
codaddict
2010-04-28 08:43:46
+1
A:
Number of characters (not including the trailing \0) printed on success, negative value on failure. see man printf.
Jasmeet
2010-04-28 08:44:15
Don't count on it returning `-1` on failure; it can return any negative value.
Arkku
2010-04-28 08:52:29
Thats correct, I will fix the answer. Thanks
Jasmeet
2010-04-28 18:46:55
Note that printf() does not print the trailing null - which is why it is not included in the count.
Jonathan Leffler
2010-04-28 18:57:34
+1
A:
The result of "printf" is the number of characters written. If a write error occurs, "printf" returns a negative number. (ANSI standard)
Even wikipedia has a whole article about printf, where you can find the different return values for different languages and times.
tanascius
2010-04-28 08:44:37
+1
A:
Exactly what it says it returns in any decent library reference
On success, the total number of characters written is returned. On failure, a negative number is returned.
Clifford
2010-04-28 08:44:51
+1
A:
- Point your browser to www.google.com;
- Search "printf c";
- Almost any result you'll get will tell you:
Return Value
On success, the total number of characters written is returned.
On failure, a negative number is returned.
Was that so difficult?
Matteo Italia
2010-04-28 08:45:58
Which will get you common practice in almost all cases, which is very different from asking what it actually returns.
David Thornley
2010-04-28 19:05:49
This is the best answer. For any questions as trivial as "what does C function x return", the above should be your first resource. Leave SO for more "interesting" problems and questions. Futhermore, reading a paragraph or two worth of documentation to get an answer is genereally time well spent (I call it colateral learning).
NealB
2010-04-28 19:06:48
I don't understand the downvotes. I provided exactly the same information provided by all the other answers, **including the one with three upvotes** and the information needed to find that answer without spamming SO; I don't even think I've been impolite.NealB expressed perfectly my position on the topic; I like to give complete and insightful answers to serious/interesting questions, but for such things teaching to use Google is the best thing you can do. In other forums in which I often write such a question may even have been closed with a (polite) RTFM.
Matteo Italia
2010-04-28 19:26:01
@Matteo: I agree with you - your answer is a polite RTFM and totally valid for this question ... +1
tanascius
2010-04-28 20:31:39