_cprintf_p, _cprintf_p_l, _cwprintf_p, _cwprintf_p_l

Formats and prints to the console, and supports positional parameters in the format string.

Important

This API cannot be used in applications that execute in the Windows Runtime. For more information, see CRT functions not supported in Universal Windows Platform apps.

Syntax

int _cprintf_p(
   const char * format [,
   argument] ...
);
int _cprintf_p_l(
   const char * format,
   _locale_t locale [,
   argument] ...
);
int _cwprintf_p(
   const wchar * format [,
   argument] ...
);
int _cwprintf_p_l(
   const wchar * format,
   _locale_t locale [,
   argument] ...
);

Parameters

format
Format-control string.

argument
Optional parameters.

locale
The locale to use.

Return value

The number of characters printed or a negative value if an error occurs.

Remarks

These functions format and print a series of characters and values directly to the console, using the _putch and _putwch functions to output characters. Each argument (if any) is converted and output according to the corresponding format specification in format. The format has the same form and function as the format parameter for the printf_p function. The difference between _cprintf_p and cprintf_s is that _cprintf_p supports positional parameters, which allows specifying the order in which the arguments are used in the format string. For more information, see printf_p Positional Parameters.

Unlike the fprintf_p, printf_p, and sprintf_p functions, _cprintf_p and _cwprintf_p don't translate line-feed characters into carriage return-line feed (CR-LF) combinations when output. An important distinction is that _cwprintf_p displays Unicode characters when used in Windows NT. Unlike _cprintf_p, _cwprintf_p uses the current console locale settings.

The versions of these functions with the _l suffix are identical except that they use the locale parameter passed in instead of the current locale.

Also, like _cprintf_s and _cwprintf_s, they validate the input pointer and the format string. If format or argument are NULL, or of the format string contains invalid formatting characters, these functions invoke the invalid parameter handler, as described in Parameter validation. If execution is allowed to continue, these functions return -1 and set errno to EINVAL.

Important

Ensure that format is not a user-defined string.

Starting in Windows 10 version 2004 (build 19041), the printf family of functions prints exactly representable floating point numbers according to the IEEE 754 rules for rounding. In previous versions of Windows, exactly representable floating point numbers ending in '5' would always round up. IEEE 754 states that they must round to the closest even digit (also known as "Banker's Rounding"). For example, both printf("%1.0f", 1.5) and printf("%1.0f", 2.5) should round to 2. Previously, 1.5 would round to 2 and 2.5 would round to 3. This change only affects exactly representable numbers. For example, 2.35 (which, when represented in memory, is closer to 2.35000000000000008) continues to round up to 2.4. Rounding done by these functions now also respects the floating point rounding mode set by fesetround. Previously, rounding always chose FE_TONEAREST behavior. This change only affects programs built using Visual Studio 2019 version 16.2 and later. To use the legacy floating point rounding behavior, link with legacy_stdio_float_rounding.obj.

Generic-text routine mappings

Tchar.h routine	_UNICODE and _MBCS not defined	_MBCS defined	_UNICODE defined
_tcprintf_p	_cprintf_p	_cprintf_p	_cwprintf_p
_tcprintf_p_l	_cprintf_p_l	_cprintf_p_l	_cwprintf_p_l

Requirements

Routine	Required header
_cprintf_p, _cprintf_p_l	<conio.h>
_cwprintf_p, _cwprintf_p_l	<conio.h>

For more compatibility information, see Compatibility.

Example

// crt_cprintf_p.c
// This program displays some variables to the console
// using the _cprintf_p function.

#include <conio.h>

int main( void )
{
    int         i = -16,
                h = 29;
    unsigned    u = 62511;
    char        c = 'A';
    char        s[] = "Test";

    // Note that console output does not translate
    // \n as standard output does. Use \r\n instead.
    _cprintf_p( "%2$d  %1$.4x  %3$u  %4$c %5$s\r\n",
                h, i, u, c, s );
}

-16  001d  62511  A Test

See also

Console and port I/O
_cscanf, _cscanf_l, _cwscanf, _cwscanf_l
_cscanf_s, _cscanf_s_l, _cwscanf_s, _cwscanf_s_l
_fprintf_p, _fprintf_p_l, _fwprintf_p, _fwprintf_p_l
fprintf_s, _fprintf_s_l, fwprintf_s, _fwprintf_s_l
_printf_p, _printf_p_l, _wprintf_p, _wprintf_p_l
printf_s, _printf_s_l, wprintf_s, _wprintf_s_l
_sprintf_p, _sprintf_p_l, _swprintf_p, _swprintf_p_l
_vfprintf_p, _vfprintf_p_l, _vfwprintf_p, _vfwprintf_p_l
_cprintf_s, _cprintf_s_l, _cwprintf_s, _cwprintf_s_l
printf_p Positional Parameters
Format specification syntax: printf and wprintf functions