How to printf "unsigned long" in C?

Question

I can never understand how to print unsigned long datatype in C.

Suppose boo is an unsigned long, then I try:

• printf("%lu\n", unsigned_boo)
• printf("%du\n", unsigned_boo)
• printf("%ud\n", unsigned_boo)
• printf("%ll\n", unsigned_boo)
• printf("%ld\n", unsigned_boo)
• printf("%dl\n", unsigned_boo)

And all of them print some kind of -123123123 number instead of unsigned long that I have.

I can't figure it out, can you help me?

Thanks, Boda Cydo.

Answer 1

%lu is the correct format for unsigned long. Sounds like there are other issues at play here, such as memory corruption or an uninitialized variable. Perhaps show us a larger picture?

Answer 2

The correct specifier for unsigned long is %lu.

If you are not getting exact value you are having then there may be some problem in your code.

Please copy your code here.Then may be someone can tell you better what is the problem.

Thanks

Alok.Kr.

Answer 3

Out of all the combinations you tried, %ld and %lu are the only ones which are valid printf format specifiers at all. %lu (long unsigned decimal), %lx or %lX (long hex with lowercase or uppercase letters), and %lo (long octal) are the only valid format specifiers for a variable of type unsigned long (of course you can add field width, precision, etc modifiers between the % and the l).

Answer 4

The format is %lu.

Please check about the various other datatypes and their usage in printf here