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# printf

Perl 5 version 26.0 documentation
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# printf

Perl functions A-Z | Perl functions by category | The 'perlfunc' manpage

- printf FILEHANDLE FORMAT, LIST

- printf FILEHANDLE
- printf FORMAT, LIST
- printf

  Equivalent to `print FILEHANDLE sprintf(FORMAT, LIST)` , except that $\ (the output record separator) is not appended. The FORMAT and the LIST are actually parsed as a single list. The first argument of the list will be interpreted as the printf format. This means that `printf(@_)` will use `$_[0]` as the format. See sprintf for an explanation of the format argument. If `use locale` (including `use locale ':not_characters'` ) is in effect and POSIX::setlocale has been called, the character used for the decimal separator in formatted floating-point numbers is affected by the `LC_NUMERIC` locale setting. See perllocale and POSIX.

  For historical reasons, if you omit the list, $_ is used as the format; to use FILEHANDLE without a list, you must use a bareword filehandle like `FH` , not an indirect one like `$fh` . However, this will rarely do what you want; if $_ contains formatting codes, they will be replaced with the empty string and a warning will be emitted if warnings are enabled. Just use print if you want to print the contents of $_ .

  Don't fall into the trap of using a printf when a simple print would do. The print is more efficient and less error prone.