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From: fauman@cgl.ucsf.edu (Eric Fauman%Stroud)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: printf and variable length string format (asterisk)
Message-ID: <10518@cgl.ucsf.EDU>
Date: Mon, 23-Nov-87 20:41:17 EST
Article-I.D.: cgl.10518
Posted: Mon Nov 23 20:41:17 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Nov-87 21:32:21 EST
References: <692@zycad.UUCP>
Organization: UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
Lines: 23

In article <692@zycad.UUCP> kjb@zycad.UUCP (Kevin Buchs) writes:
>
>I want to print out a string whose length I will not know ahead, and which
>is not null terminated.  I thought the following use of the asterisk
>precision delimiter would work:
>	
>char *a = "hello"; int i;
>for (i=0; i<6; i++) printf("%*s\n", i, a);
>
>Does the asterisk not work with the s descriptor?  Or, am I using it wrong.


The number following the % is a width specifier, which in the case of a string >
is the minimum width to use.  To specify the precision, the number should
follow the %, an optional width field, and a period.  The following code
will produce the desired output:

char *cp; int i;
cp = "hello";
for (i=1;i<6;++i)
	printf("%.*s\n",i+1,cp);

Eric Fauman - University of California - San Francisco