◄Up► ◄Contents► ◄Index► ◄Back► ─────Run-Time Library─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Format specifications are introduced by the percent sign (%) and have the following form: % [*] [width] [ { F | N } ] [ { h | l } ] type Each field of the format specification is a single character or a number signifying a particular format option. The <type> character, which appears after the last optional format field, determines whether the input field is interpreted as a character, a string, or a number. The simplest format specification contains only the percent sign and a type character (for example, %s). See: ◄Prefixes► ◄Type► If a percent sign (%) is followed by a character that has no meaning as a format-control character, that character is treated as ordinary. For example, to specify that a percent-sign character is to be input, use %%. An asterisk (*) following the percent sign suppresses assignment of the next input field, which is interpreted as a field of the specified type. The field is scanned but not stored. The width is a positive decimal integer controlling the maximum number of characters to be read from stdin. No more than <width> characters are converted and stored at the corresponding argument. Fewer than <width> characters may be read if a white-space character (space, tab, or newline) or a character that cannot be converted according to the given format occurs before <width> is reached. -♦-