Printf confusion in C

Question

I'm a beginner to C, and I'm having some trouble formatting a simple printf function that takes two integers, a & b and prints out a^2 + b^2 = c, where I assign c to be a*a + b*b..

That being said, I'm not sure how the parameters of C's printf statement work, this is what I wrote:

printf("%i,a ^2 + (%i,b) ^2 = %i,c", a, b, c);

And this is what it's printing

3,a ^2 + (4,b) ^2 = 25,c10,a ^2 + (10,b) ^2 = 200,c

Which isn't too far off, I just don't know how to get rid of the ugly variables & parenthesis I have going on like (4,b)

This is what it is supposed to look like. I know I'm missing a "\n" in there somewhere also.

3^2 + 4^2 = 25 10^2 + 10^2 = 200

fede1024 · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-29 15:52:58Z

printf("%i^2 + %i^2 = %i\n", a, b, c);

You don't need to put a, b, c in the string, because the string is used as a template where %i will be substituted with the given parameters. You just need to add them after the string, in the correct order.

Everything that does not start with % will be printed as it is, as in your case with letters and parenthesis.

So essentially you just put the parameters a b & c at the end so they don't LITERALLY print a b and c?
Exactly, just put them in the correct order, in the same number as %i you have.

elixenide · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-29 15:48:45Z

When you put a in the quotes in the first parameter, you get a literal a, not the value of a.

You want to do something like this:

printf("%i^2 + %i^2 = %i", a, b, c);

The ,a notation you have doesn't work. You use %i as a placeholder for an integer, then pass the integer as a separate parameter. So, in the version I wrote above, you have three placeholders, then pass in three variables as additional parameters.

chux · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-29 17:38:26Z

Also you can use printf("%d^2 + %d^2 = %d", a, b, c) for integers too. If you need to parse doubles you can use printf("%f^2 + %f^2 = %f", a, b, c). I recommend that you read the book "The C Programming Language II Edition", a really good book. Chapter Seven is about Input and Output.

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