String Format Specifiers
This article summarizes the format specifiers supported by string formatting methods and functions.
Format Specifiers
The format specifiers supported by the NSString
formatting methods and CFString formatting functions follow the IEEE printf specification; the specifiers are summarized in Table 1. Note that you can also use the “n$
” positional specifiers such as %1$@ %2$s
. For more details, see the IEEE printf specification. You can also use these format specifiers with the NSLog
function.
Specifier | Description |
---|---|
| Objective-C object, printed as the string returned by |
|
|
| Signed 32-bit integer ( |
| Unsigned 32-bit integer ( |
| Unsigned 32-bit integer ( |
| Unsigned 32-bit integer ( |
| Unsigned 32-bit integer ( |
| 64-bit floating-point number ( |
| 64-bit floating-point number ( |
| 64-bit floating-point number ( |
| 64-bit floating-point number ( |
| 64-bit floating-point number ( |
| 8-bit unsigned character ( |
| 16-bit Unicode character ( |
| Null-terminated array of 8-bit unsigned characters. Because the |
| Null-terminated array of 16-bit Unicode characters. |
| Void pointer ( |
| 64-bit floating-point number ( |
| 64-bit floating-point number ( |
| 64-bit floating-point number ( |
Length modifier | Description |
---|---|
| Length modifier specifying that a following |
| Length modifier specifying that a following |
| Length modifier specifying that a following |
| Length modifiers specifying that a following |
| Length modifier specifying that a following |
| Length modifier specifying that a following |
| Length modifier specifying that a following |
| Length modifier specifying that a following |
Platform Dependencies
OS X uses several data types—NSInteger
, NSUInteger
,CGFloat
, and CFIndex
—to provide a consistent means of representing values in 32- and 64-bit environments. In a 32-bit environment, NSInteger
and NSUInteger
are defined as int
and unsigned int
, respectively. In 64-bit environments, NSInteger
and NSUInteger
are defined as long
and unsigned long
, respectively. To avoid the need to use different printf-style type specifiers depending on the platform, you can use the specifiers shown in Table 3. Note that in some cases you may have to cast the value.
Type | Format specifier | Considerations |
---|---|---|
|
| Cast the value to |
|
| Cast the value to |
|
|
|
|
| The same as |
pointer |
|
|
The following example illustrates the use of %ld
to format an NSInteger
and the use of a cast.
NSInteger i = 42; |
printf("%ld\n", (long)i); |
In addition to the considerations mentioned in Table 3, there is one extra case with scanning: you must distinguish the types for float
and double
. You should use %f
for float, %lf
for double. If you need to use scanf
(or a variant thereof) with CGFloat
, switch to double
instead, and copy the double
to CGFloat
.
CGFloat imageWidth; |
double tmp; |
sscanf (str, "%lf", &tmp); |
imageWidth = tmp; |
It is important to remember that %lf
does not represent CGFloat
correctly on either 32- or 64-bit platforms. This is unlike %ld
, which works for long
in all cases.