Printf

Section: OCaml library (3)
Updated: 2009-07-27
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NAME

Printf - Formatted output functions.  

Module

Module Printf  

Documentation

Module Printf
 :  sig end

Formatted output functions.

val fprintf : Pervasives.out_channel -> ('a, Pervasives.out_channel, unit) Pervasives.format -> 'a

fprintf outchan format arg1 ... argN formats the arguments arg1 to argN according to the format string format , and outputs the resulting string on the channel outchan .

The format is a character string which contains two types of objects: plain characters, which are simply copied to the output channel, and conversion specifications, each of which causes conversion and printing of arguments.

Conversion specifications have the following form:

% [flags] [width] [.precision] type

In short, a conversion specification consists in the % character, followed by optional modifiers and a type which is made of one or two characters. The types and their meanings are:

- d , i , n , l , L , or N : convert an integer argument to signed decimal.

- u : convert an integer argument to unsigned decimal.

- x : convert an integer argument to unsigned hexadecimal, using lowercase letters.

- X : convert an integer argument to unsigned hexadecimal, using uppercase letters.

- o : convert an integer argument to unsigned octal.

- s : insert a string argument.

- S : insert a string argument in Caml syntax (double quotes, escapes).

- c : insert a character argument.

- C : insert a character argument in Caml syntax (single quotes, escapes).

- f : convert a floating-point argument to decimal notation, in the style dddd.ddd .

- F : convert a floating-point argument to Caml syntax ( dddd. or dddd.ddd or d.ddd e+-dd ).

- e or E : convert a floating-point argument to decimal notation, in the style d.ddd e+-dd (mantissa and exponent).

- g or G : convert a floating-point argument to decimal notation, in style f or e , E (whichever is more compact).

- B : convert a boolean argument to the string true or false

- b : convert a boolean argument (for backward compatibility; do not use in new programs).

- ld , li , lu , lx , lX , lo : convert an int32 argument to the format specified by the second letter (decimal, hexadecimal, etc).

- nd , ni , nu , nx , nX , no : convert a nativeint argument to the format specified by the second letter.

- Ld , Li , Lu , Lx , LX , Lo : convert an int64 argument to the format specified by the second letter.

- a : user-defined printer. Takes two arguments and applies the first one to outchan (the current output channel) and to the second argument. The first argument must therefore have type out_channel -> 'b -> unit and the second 'b . The output produced by the function is inserted in the output of fprintf at the current point.

- t : same as %a , but takes only one argument (with type out_channel -> unit ) and apply it to outchan .

- { fmt %} : convert a format string argument. The argument must have the same type as the internal format string fmt .

- ( fmt %) : format string substitution. Takes a format string argument and substitutes it to the internal format string fmt to print following arguments. The argument must have the same type as fmt .

- ! : take no argument and flush the output.

- % : take no argument and output one % character.

The optional flags are:

- - : left-justify the output (default is right justification).

- 0 : for numerical conversions, pad with zeroes instead of spaces.

- + : for numerical conversions, prefix number with a + sign if positive.

-space: for numerical conversions, prefix number with a space if positive.

- # : request an alternate formatting style for numbers.

The optional width is an integer indicating the minimal width of the result. For instance, %6d prints an integer, prefixing it with spaces to fill at least 6 characters.

The optional precision is a dot . followed by an integer indicating how many digits follow the decimal point in the %f , %e , and %E conversions. For instance, %.4f prints a float with 4 fractional digits.

The integer in a width or precision can also be specified as * , in which case an extra integer argument is taken to specify the corresponding width or precision . This integer argument precedes immediately the argument to print. For instance, %.*f prints a float with as many fractional digits as the value of the argument given before the float.

val printf : ('a, Pervasives.out_channel, unit) Pervasives.format -> 'a

Same as Printf.fprintf , but output on stdout .

val eprintf : ('a, Pervasives.out_channel, unit) Pervasives.format -> 'a

Same as Printf.fprintf , but output on stderr .

val ifprintf : 'a -> ('b, 'a, unit) Pervasives.format -> 'b

Same as Printf.fprintf , but does not print anything. Useful to ignore some material when conditionally printing.

val sprintf : ('a, unit, string) Pervasives.format -> 'a

Same as Printf.fprintf , but instead of printing on an output channel, return a string containing the result of formatting the arguments.

val bprintf : Buffer.t -> ('a, Buffer.t, unit) Pervasives.format -> 'a

Same as Printf.fprintf , but instead of printing on an output channel, append the formatted arguments to the given extensible buffer (see module Buffer ).

=== Formatted output functions with continuations. ===

val kfprintf : (Pervasives.out_channel -> 'a) -> Pervasives.out_channel -> ('b, Pervasives.out_channel, unit, 'a) Pervasives.format4 -> 'b

Same as fprintf , but instead of returning immediately, passes the out channel to its first argument at the end of printing.

val ksprintf : (string -> 'a) -> ('b, unit, string, 'a) Pervasives.format4 -> 'b

Same as sprintf above, but instead of returning the string, passes it to the first argument.

val kbprintf : (Buffer.t -> 'a) -> Buffer.t -> ('b, Buffer.t, unit, 'a) Pervasives.format4 -> 'b

Same as bprintf , but instead of returning immediately, passes the buffer to its first argument at the end of printing.

val kprintf : (string -> 'a) -> ('b, unit, string, 'a) Pervasives.format4 -> 'b

A deprecated synonym for ksprintf .