[java] what do these symbolic strings mean: %02d %01d?

I'm looking at a code line similar to:

sprintf(buffer,"%02d:%02d:%02d",hour,minute,second);

I think the symbolic strings refer to the number of numeric characters displayed per hour, minute etc - or something like that, I am not entirely certain.

Normally I can figure this sort of thing out but I have been unable to find any useful reference searching "%02d %01d" on google. Anyone able to shed some light on this for me?

The answer from Alexander refers to complete docs...

Your simple example from the question simply prints out these values with 2 digits - appending leading 0 if necessary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printf#printf_format_placeholders

The article is about the class of printf functions, in several languages, from the 50s to this day.

Instead of Googling for %02d you should have been searching for sprintf() function.

%02d means "format the integer with 2 digits, left padding it with zeroes", so:

Format  Data   Result
%02d    1      01
%02d    11     11

They are formatting String. The Java specific syntax is given in java.util.Formatter.

The general syntax is as follows:

   %[argument_index$][flags][width][.precision]conversion

%02d performs decimal integer conversion d, formatted with zero padding (0 flag), with width 2. Thus, an int argument whose value is say 7, will be formatted into "07" as a String.

You may also see this formatting string in e.g. String.format.

Commonly used formats

These are just some commonly used formats and doesn't cover the syntax exhaustively.

Zero padding for numbers

System.out.printf("Agent %03d to the rescue!", 7);
// Agent 007 to the rescue!

Width for justification

You can use the - flag for left justification; otherwise it'll be right justification.

for (Map.Entry<Object,Object> prop : System.getProperties().entrySet()) {
    System.out.printf("%-30s : %50s%n", prop.getKey(), prop.getValue());
}

This prints something like:

java.version                   :                                 1.6.0_07
java.vm.name                   :               Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM
java.vm.vendor                 :                    Sun Microsystems Inc.
java.vm.specification.name     :       Java Virtual Machine Specification
java.runtime.name              :          Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment
java.vendor.url                :                     http://java.sun.com/

For more powerful message formatting, you can use java.text.MessageFormat. %n is the newline conversion (see below).

Hexadecimal conversion

System.out.println(Integer.toHexString(255));
// ff

System.out.printf("%d is %<08X", 255);
// 255 is 000000FF

Note that this also uses the < relative indexing (see below).

Floating point formatting

System.out.printf("%+,010.2f%n", 1234.567);
System.out.printf("%+,010.2f%n", -66.6666);
// +01,234.57
// -000066.67

For more powerful floating point formatting, use DecimalFormat instead.

%n for platform-specific line separator

System.out.printf("%s,%n%s%n", "Hello", "World");
// Hello,
// World

%% for an actual %-sign

System.out.printf("It's %s%% guaranteed!", 99.99);
// It's 99.99% guaranteed!

Note that the double literal 99.99 is autoboxed to Double, on which a string conversion using toString() is defined.

n$ for explicit argument indexing

System.out.printf("%1$s! %1$s %2$s! %1$s %2$s %3$s!",
    "Du", "hast", "mich"
);
// Du! Du hast! Du hast mich!

< for relative indexing

System.out.format("%s?! %<S?!?!?", "Who's your daddy");
// Who's your daddy?! WHO'S YOUR DADDY?!?!?

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% is a special character you put in format strings, for example in C language printf and scanf (and family), that basically says "this is a placeholder for something else, not to be printed/read literally."

For example, a (%02d) in a format string for printf is a placeholder for an integer variable that will be printed in decimal (%02d) and padded to at least two digits, with zeros if necessary.

The actual integer is supplied by you in an an argument to the function, e.g. printf("%02d",5); would print 05 on screen, (%01d) also works similarly

Same hold for Java and other languages too :)