Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!rutgers!bellcore!faline!ulysses!allegra!alice!ark
From: ark@alice.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: question about format strings
Message-ID: <7563@alice.UUCP>
Date: 23 Dec 87 15:50:39 GMT
References: <10954@brl-adm.ARPA>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Liberty Corner NJ
Lines: 12

In article <10954@brl-adm.ARPA>, PEPRBV%CFAAMP.BITNET@husc6.harvard.EDU writes:
> Reading the description of the format string for printf, it seemed
> to me that "%10 " might be the equivalent of 10X in Fortran, that
> is, insert 10 spaces.

"%10 " is an illegal format string.

A blank space is a format modifier, like 'l', that says that you want
printf to write a space in place of a sign when the number is
zero or positive. However, it has to have something to modify.
So, for instance "%g" will print 3 as "3" and -3 as "-3", but
"% g" will print 3 as " 3" and -3 as "-3".