printf Command Examples

Format and print text. More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/printf.

• Print a text message:

printf "{{%s\n}}" "{{Hello world}}"

• Print an integer in bold blue:

printf "{{\e[1;34m%.3d\e[0m\n}}" {{42}}

• Print a float number with the Unicode Euro sign:

printf "{{\u20AC %.2f\n}}" {{123.4}}

• Print a text message composed with environment variables:

printf "{{var1: %s\tvar2: %s\n}}" "{{$VAR1}}" "{{$VAR2}}"

• Store a formatted message in a variable (does not work on Zsh):

printf -v {{myvar}} {{"This is %s = %d\n" "a year" 2016}}

• Print a hexadecimal, octal and scientific number:

printf "{{hex=%x octal=%o scientific=%e}}" 0x{{FF}} 0{{377}} {{100000}}