The printf statement

awk's printf statement is essentially the same as that in C except that the format specifier is not supported. The printf statement has the general form

   printf format, expr[1], expr[2], . . ., expr[n]

-

Left-justify expression in its field.

width

Pad field to this width as needed; fields that begin with a leading 0 are padded with zeros.

.prec

Specify maximum string width or digits to right of decimal point.

``awk printf conversion characters'' lists the printf conversion characters.

awk printf conversion characters

Character	Prints expression as
c	single character
d	decimal number
e	[-]d.ddddddE[+-]dd
f	[-]ddd.dddddd
g	e or f conversion, whichever is shorter, with nonsignificant zeros suppressed
o	unsigned octal number
s	string
x	unsigned hexadecimal number
%	print a %; no argument is converted

Below are some examples of printf statements along with the corresponding output:

   printf "%d", 99/2	49
   printf "%e", 99/2	4.950000e+01
   printf "%f", 99/2	49.500000
   printf "%6.2f", 99/2	49.50
   printf "%g", 99/2	49.5
   printf "%o", 99	143
   printf "%06o", 99	000143
   printf "%x", 99	63
   printf "|%s|", "January"	|January|
   printf "|%10s|", "January"	|   January|
   printf "|%-10s|", "January"	|January   |
   printf "|%.3s|", "January"	|Jan|
   printf "|%10.3s|", "January"	|       Jan|
   printf "|%-10.3s|", "January"	|Jan       |
   printf "%%"	%