PHP 8 reference · String Functions

PHP sprintf() Function

Return a formatted string built from a template with placeholders like %s, %d and %.2f. Format numbers, pad and align.

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Syntax

sprintf(string $format, mixed ...$values): string

Parameter	Description
`format`	The template: `%s` string, `%d` integer, `%.2f` decimal, `%05d` zero-padded, `%-10s` left-aligned, `%%` a percent sign.
`values`	The values for the placeholders, in order.

The formatted string.

Common placeholdersTry it yourself

<?php
echo sprintf("%s is %d years old", "Ada", 36), "\n";
echo sprintf("Total: %.2f", 19.5), "\n";
echo sprintf("Invoice #%05d", 42), "\n";

Output

Ada is 36 years old
Total: 19.50
Invoice #00042

Align columnsTry it yourself

<?php
foreach (["Tea" => 3.5, "Carrot cake" => 12.25] as $item => $price) {
    echo sprintf("%-12s%8.2f", $item, $price), "\n";
}

Output

Tea             3.50
Carrot cake    12.25

Argument numbers and other basesTry it yourself

<?php
echo sprintf('%2$s, %1$s', "Ada", "Lovelace"), "\n";
echo sprintf("%b %o %X %e", 10, 8, 255, 1234.5), "\n";

Output

Lovelace, Ada
1010 10 FF 1.234500e+3

Version	Change
PHP 4.0	Added
PHP 8.0	Too few arguments throws an `ArgumentCountError` instead of returning `false`.

printf() · Output a formatted string, using the same placeholders as sprintf(), and return the number of bytes printed.
vsprintf() · Format a string like sprintf(), but take the values from an array. Useful when the number of values varies.
number_format() · Format a number with grouped thousands and a fixed number of decimals, such as 1,234,567.89 or 1.234,57.
str_pad() · Pad a string to a given length with spaces or another string, on the right, left or both sides.
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