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NAME
fwprintf, swprintf, wprintf — print formatted wide-character output
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdio.h>
#include <wchar.h>
int fwprintf(FILE *restrict stream, const wchar_t *restrict format, ...);
int swprintf(wchar_t *restrict ws, size_t n,
const wchar_t *restrict format, ...);
int wprintf(const wchar_t *restrict format, ...);
DESCRIPTION
The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the ISO C standard. Any conflict
between the requirements described here and the ISO C standard is unintentional. This volume of
POSIX.1‐2008 defers to the ISO C standard.
The fwprintf() function shall place output on the named output stream. The wprintf() function shall
place output on the standard output stream stdout. The swprintf() function shall place output followed
by the null wide character in consecutive wide characters starting at *ws; no more than n wide characters
shall be written, including a terminating null wide character, which is always added (unless n is zero).
Each of these functions shall convert, format, and print its arguments under control of the format wide-
character string. The format is composed of zero or more directives: ordinary wide-characters, which are
simply copied to the output stream, and conversion specifications, each of which results in the fetching
of zero or more arguments. The results are undefined if there are insufficient arguments for the format.
If the format is exhausted while arguments remain, the excess arguments are evaluated but are otherwise
ignored.
Conversions can be applied to the nth argument after the format in the argument list, rather than to the
next unused argument. In this case, the conversion specifier wide character % (see below) is replaced by
the sequence "%n$", where n is a decimal integer in the range [1,{NL_ARGMAX}], giving the position of the
argument in the argument list. This feature provides for the definition of format wide-character strings
that select arguments in an order appropriate to specific languages (see the EXAMPLES section).
The format can contain either numbered argument specifications (that is, "%n$" and "*m$"), or unnumbered
argument conversion specifications (that is, % and *), but not both. The only exception to this is that
%% can be mixed with the "%n$" form. The results of mixing numbered and unnumbered argument
specifications in a format wide-character string are undefined. When numbered argument specifications are
used, specifying the Nth argument requires that all the leading arguments, from the first to the (N−1)th,
are specified in the format wide-character string.
In format wide-character strings containing the "%n$" form of conversion specification, numbered
arguments in the argument list can be referenced from the format wide-character string as many times as
required.
In format wide-character strings containing the % form of conversion specification, each argument in the
argument list shall be used exactly once.
All forms of the fwprintf() function allow for the insertion of a locale-dependent radix character in the
output string, output as a wide-character value. The radix character is defined in the current locale
(category LC_NUMERIC). In the POSIX locale, or in a locale where the radix character is not defined, the
radix character shall default to a <period> ('.').
Each conversion specification is introduced by the '%' wide character or by the wide-character sequence
"%n$", after which the following appear in sequence:
* Zero or more flags (in any order), which modify the meaning of the conversion specification.
* An optional minimum field width. If the converted value has fewer wide characters than the field
width, it shall be padded with <space> characters by default on the left; it shall be padded on the
right, if the left-adjustment flag ('−'), described below, is given to the field width. The field
width takes the form of an <asterisk> ('*'), described below, or a decimal integer.
* An optional precision that gives the minimum number of digits to appear for the d, i, o, u, x, and X
conversion specifiers; the number of digits to appear after the radix character for the a, A, e, E,
f, and F conversion specifiers; the maximum number of significant digits for the g and G conversion
specifiers; or the maximum number of wide characters to be printed from a string in the s conversion
specifiers. The precision takes the form of a <period> ('.') followed either by an <asterisk> ('*'),
described below, or an optional decimal digit string, where a null digit string is treated as 0. If a
precision appears with any other conversion wide character, the behavior is undefined.
* An optional length modifier that specifies the size of the argument.
* A conversion specifier wide character that indicates the type of conversion to be applied.
A field width, or precision, or both, may be indicated by an <asterisk> ('*'). In this case an argument
of type int supplies the field width or precision. Applications shall ensure that arguments specifying
field width, or precision, or both appear in that order before the argument, if any, to be converted. A
negative field width is taken as a '−' flag followed by a positive field width. A negative precision is
taken as if the precision were omitted. In format wide-character strings containing the "%n$" form of a
conversion specification, a field width or precision may be indicated by the sequence "*m$", where m is a
decimal integer in the range [1,{NL_ARGMAX}] giving the position in the argument list (after the format
argument) of an integer argument containing the field width or precision, for example:
wprintf(L"%1$d:%2$.*3$d:%4$.*3$d\n", hour, min, precision, sec);
The flag wide characters and their meanings are:
' (The <apostrophe>.) The integer portion of the result of a decimal conversion (%i, %d, %u, %f,
%F, %g, or %G) shall be formatted with thousands' grouping wide characters. For other
conversions, the behavior is undefined. The numeric grouping wide character is used.
− The result of the conversion shall be left-justified within the field. The conversion shall be
right-justified if this flag is not specified.
+ The result of a signed conversion shall always begin with a sign ('+' or '−'). The conversion
shall begin with a sign only when a negative value is converted if this flag is not specified.
<space> If the first wide character of a signed conversion is not a sign, or if a signed conversion
results in no wide characters, a <space> shall be prefixed to the result. This means that if the
<space> and '+' flags both appear, the <space> flag shall be ignored.
# Specifies that the value is to be converted to an alternative form. For o conversion, it
increases the precision (if necessary) to force the first digit of the result to be 0. For x or X
conversion specifiers, a non-zero result shall have 0x (or 0X) prefixed to it. For a, A, e, E, f,
F, g, and G conversion specifiers, the result shall always contain a radix character, even if no
digits follow it. Without this flag, a radix character appears in the result of these conversions
only if a digit follows it. For g and G conversion specifiers, trailing zeros shall not be
removed from the result as they normally are. For other conversion specifiers, the behavior is
undefined.
0 For d, i, o, u, x, X, a, A, e, E, f, F, g, and G conversion specifiers, leading zeros (following
any indication of sign or base) are used to pad to the field width rather than performing space
padding, except when converting an infinity or NaN. If the '0' and '−' flags both appear, the '0'
flag shall be ignored. For d, i, o, u, x, and X conversion specifiers, if a precision is
specified, the '0' flag shall be ignored. If the '0' and <apostrophe> flags both appear, the
grouping wide characters are inserted before zero padding. For other conversions, the behavior is
undefined.
The length modifiers and their meanings are:
hh Specifies that a following d, i, o, u, x, or X conversion specifier applies to a signed char or
unsigned char argument (the argument will have been promoted according to the integer promotions,
but its value shall be converted to signed char or unsigned char before printing); or that a
following n conversion specifier applies to a pointer to a signed char argument.
h Specifies that a following d, i, o, u, x, or X conversion specifier applies to a short or
unsigned short argument (the argument will have been promoted according to the integer
promotions, but its value shall be converted to short or unsigned short before printing); or that
a following n conversion specifier applies to a pointer to a short argument.
l (ell) Specifies that a following d, i, o, u, x, or X conversion specifier applies to a long or unsigned
long argument; that a following n conversion specifier applies to a pointer to a long argument;
that a following c conversion specifier applies to a wint_t argument; that a following s
conversion specifier applies to a pointer to a wchar_t argument; or has no effect on a following
a, A, e, E, f, F, g, or G conversion specifier.
ll (ell-ell)
Specifies that a following d, i, o, u, x, or X conversion specifier applies to a long long or
unsigned long long argument; or that a following n conversion specifier applies to a pointer to a
long long argument.
j Specifies that a following d, i, o, u, x, or X conversion specifier applies to an intmax_t or
uintmax_t argument; or that a following n conversion specifier applies to a pointer to an
intmax_t argument.
z Specifies that a following d, i, o, u, x, or X conversion specifier applies to a size_t or the
corresponding signed integer type argument; or that a following n conversion specifier applies to
a pointer to a signed integer type corresponding to a size_t argument.
t Specifies that a following d, i, o, u, x, or X conversion specifier applies to a ptrdiff_t or the
corresponding unsigned type argument; or that a following n conversion specifier applies to a
pointer to a ptrdiff_t argument.
L Specifies that a following a, A, e, E, f, F, g, or G conversion specifier applies to a long
double argument.
If a length modifier appears with any conversion specifier other than as specified above, the behavior is
undefined.
The conversion specifiers and their meanings are:
d, i The int argument shall be converted to a signed decimal in the style "[−]dddd". The precision
specifies the minimum number of digits to appear; if the value being converted can be represented
in fewer digits, it shall be expanded with leading zeros. The default precision shall be 1. The
result of converting zero with an explicit precision of zero shall be no wide characters.
o The unsigned argument shall be converted to unsigned octal format in the style "dddd". The
precision specifies the minimum number of digits to appear; if the value being converted can be
represented in fewer digits, it shall be expanded with leading zeros. The default precision shall
be 1. The result of converting zero with an explicit precision of zero shall be no wide
characters.
u The unsigned argument shall be converted to unsigned decimal format in the style "dddd". The
precision specifies the minimum number of digits to appear; if the value being converted can be
represented in fewer digits, it shall be expanded with leading zeros. The default precision shall
be 1. The result of converting zero with an explicit precision of zero shall be no wide
characters.
x The unsigned argument shall be converted to unsigned hexadecimal format in the style "dddd"; the
letters "abcdef" are used. The precision specifies the minimum number of digits to appear; if the
value being converted can be represented in fewer digits, it shall be expanded with leading
zeros. The default precision shall be 1. The result of converting zero with an explicit precision
of zero shall be no wide characters.
X Equivalent to the x conversion specifier, except that letters "ABCDEF" are used instead of
"abcdef".
f, F The double argument shall be converted to decimal notation in the style "[−]ddd.ddd", where the
number of digits after the radix character shall be equal to the precision specification. If the
precision is missing, it shall be taken as 6; if the precision is explicitly zero and no '#' flag
is present, no radix character shall appear. If a radix character appears, at least one digit
shall appear before it. The value shall be rounded in an implementation-defined manner to the
appropriate number of digits.
A double argument representing an infinity shall be converted in one of the styles "[−]inf" or
"[−]infinity"; which style is implementation-defined. A double argument representing a NaN shall
be converted in one of the styles "[−]nan" or "[−]nan(n-char-sequence)"; which style, and the
meaning of any n-char-sequence, is implementation-defined. The F conversion specifier produces
"INF", "INFINITY", or "NAN" instead of "inf", "infinity", or "nan", respectively.
e, E The double argument shall be converted in the style "[−]d.ddde±dd", where there shall be one
digit before the radix character (which is non-zero if the argument is non-zero) and the number
of digits after it shall be equal to the precision; if the precision is missing, it shall be
taken as 6; if the precision is zero and no '#' flag is present, no radix character shall appear.
The value shall be rounded in an implementation-defined manner to the appropriate number of
digits. The E conversion wide character shall produce a number with 'E' instead of 'e'
introducing the exponent. The exponent shall always contain at least two digits. If the value is
zero, the exponent shall be zero.
A double argument representing an infinity or NaN shall be converted in the style of an f or F
conversion specifier.
g, G The double argument representing a floating-point number shall be converted in the style f or e
(or in the style F or E in the case of a G conversion specifier), depending on the value
converted and the precision. Let P equal the precision if non-zero, 6 if the precision is
omitted, or 1 if the precision is zero. Then, if a conversion with style E would have an exponent
of X:
-- If P>X≥−4, the conversion shall be with style f (or F) and precision P−(X+1).
-- Otherwise, the conversion shall be with style e (or E) and precision P−1.
Finally, unless the '#' flag is used, any trailing zeros shall be removed from the fractional
portion of the result and the decimal-point character shall be removed if there is no fractional
portion remaining.
A double argument representing an infinity or NaN shall be converted in the style of an f or F
conversion specifier.
a, A A double argument representing a floating-point number shall be converted in the style
"[−]0xh.hhhhp±d", where there shall be one hexadecimal digit (which is non-zero if the argument
is a normalized floating-point number and is otherwise unspecified) before the decimal-point wide
character and the number of hexadecimal digits after it shall be equal to the precision; if the
precision is missing and FLT_RADIX is a power of 2, then the precision shall be sufficient for an
exact representation of the value; if the precision is missing and FLT_RADIX is not a power of 2,
then the precision shall be sufficient to distinguish values of type double, except that trailing
zeros may be omitted; if the precision is zero and the '#' flag is not specified, no decimal-
point wide character shall appear. The letters "abcdef" are used for a conversion and the
letters "ABCDEF" for A conversion. The A conversion specifier produces a number with 'X' and 'P'
instead of 'x' and 'p'. The exponent shall always contain at least one digit, and only as many
more digits as necessary to represent the decimal exponent of 2. If the value is zero, the
exponent shall be zero.
A double argument representing an infinity or NaN shall be converted in the style of an f or F
conversion specifier.
c If no l (ell) qualifier is present, the int argument shall be converted to a wide character as if
by calling the btowc() function and the resulting wide character shall be written. Otherwise, the
wint_t argument shall be converted to wchar_t, and written.
s If no l (ell) qualifier is present, the application shall ensure that the argument is a pointer
to a character array containing a character sequence beginning in the initial shift state.
Characters from the array shall be converted as if by repeated calls to the mbrtowc() function,
with the conversion state described by an mbstate_t object initialized to zero before the first
character is converted, and written up to (but not including) the terminating null wide
character. If the precision is specified, no more than that many wide characters shall be
written. If the precision is not specified, or is greater than the size of the array, the
application shall ensure that the array contains a null wide character.
If an l (ell) qualifier is present, the application shall ensure that the argument is a pointer
to an array of type wchar_t. Wide characters from the array shall be written up to (but not
including) a terminating null wide character. If no precision is specified, or is greater than
the size of the array, the application shall ensure that the array contains a null wide
character. If a precision is specified, no more than that many wide characters shall be written.
p The application shall ensure that the argument is a pointer to void. The value of the pointer
shall be converted to a sequence of printable wide characters in an implementation-defined
manner.
n The application shall ensure that the argument is a pointer to an integer into which is written
the number of wide characters written to the output so far by this call to one of the fwprintf()
functions. No argument shall be converted, but one shall be consumed. If the conversion
specification includes any flags, a field width, or a precision, the behavior is undefined.
C Equivalent to lc.
S Equivalent to ls.
% Output a '%' wide character; no argument shall be converted. The entire conversion specification
shall be %%.
If a conversion specification does not match one of the above forms, the behavior is undefined.
In no case does a nonexistent or small field width cause truncation of a field; if the result of a
conversion is wider than the field width, the field shall be expanded to contain the conversion result.
Characters generated by fwprintf() and wprintf() shall be printed as if fputwc() had been called.
For a and A conversions, if FLT_RADIX is not a power of 2 and the result is not exactly representable in
the given precision, the result should be one of the two adjacent numbers in hexadecimal floating style
with the given precision, with the extra stipulation that the error should have a correct sign for the
current rounding direction.
For e, E, f, F, g, and G conversion specifiers, if the number of significant decimal digits is at most
DECIMAL_DIG, then the result should be correctly rounded. If the number of significant decimal digits is
more than DECIMAL_DIG but the source value is exactly representable with DECIMAL_DIG digits, then the
result should be an exact representation with trailing zeros. Otherwise, the source value is bounded by
two adjacent decimal strings L < U, both having DECIMAL_DIG significant digits; the value of the
resultant decimal string D should satisfy L <= D <= U, with the extra stipulation that the error should
have a correct sign for the current rounding direction.
The last data modification and last file status change timestamps of the file shall be marked for update
between the call to a successful execution of fwprintf() or wprintf() and the next successful completion
of a call to fflush() or fclose() on the same stream, or a call to exit() or abort().
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, these functions shall return the number of wide characters transmitted,
excluding the terminating null wide character in the case of swprintf(), or a negative value if an output
error was encountered, and set errno to indicate the error.
If n or more wide characters were requested to be written, swprintf() shall return a negative value, and
set errno to indicate the error.
ERRORS
For the conditions under which fwprintf() and wprintf() fail and may fail, refer to fputwc().
In addition, all forms of fwprintf() shall fail if:
EILSEQ A wide-character code that does not correspond to a valid character has been detected.
In addition, all forms of fwprintf() may fail if:
EINVAL There are insufficient arguments.
In addition, fwprintf() and wprintf() may fail if:
ENOMEM Insufficient storage space is available.
The swprintf() shall fail if:
EOVERFLOW
The value of n is greater than {INT_MAX} or the number of bytes needed to hold the output
excluding the terminating null is greater than {INT_MAX}.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
To print the language-independent date and time format, the following statement could be used:
wprintf(format, weekday, month, day, hour, min);
For American usage, format could be a pointer to the wide-character string:
L"%s, %s %d, %d:%.2d\n"
producing the message:
Sunday, July 3, 10:02
whereas for German usage, format could be a pointer to the wide-character string:
L"%1$s, %3$d. %2$s, %4$d:%5$.2d\n"
producing the message:
Sonntag, 3. Juli, 10:02
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
Section 2.5, Standard I/O Streams, btowc(), fputwc(), fwscanf(), mbrtowc(), setlocale()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 7, Locale, <stdio.h>, <wchar.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition,
Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc
and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the event
of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced
during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 FWPRINTF(3POSIX)