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printf — Format and print text. See also: `echo`. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/m

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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commandformattextandcliprintseeprintf

Problem

How to use the printf command: Format and print text. See also: echo. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/printf-invocation.html>.

Solution

printf — Format and print text. See also: echo. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/printf-invocation.html>.

Print a text message:

printf "{{%s\n}}" "{{Hello world}}"

Print an integer in bold blue:

printf "{{\e[1;34m%.3d\e[0m\n}}" {{42}}

Print a float number with the Unicode Euro sign:

printf "{{\u20AC %.2f\n}}" {{123.4}}

Print a text message composed with environment variables:

printf "{{var1: %s\tvar2: %s\n}}" "{{$VAR1}}" "{{$VAR2}}"

Store a formatted message in a variable (does not work on Zsh):

printf -v {{myvar}} {{"This is %s = %d\n" "a year" 2016}}

Print a hexadecimal, octal, and scientific number:

printf "{{hex=%x octal=%o scientific=%e\n}}" 0x{{FF}} 0{{377}} {{100000}}

Code Snippets

Print a text message

printf "{{%s\n}}" "{{Hello world}}"

Print an integer in bold blue

printf "{{\e[1;34m%.3d\e[0m\n}}" {{42}}

Print a float number with the Unicode Euro sign

printf "{{\u20AC %.2f\n}}" {{123.4}}

Print a text message composed with environment variables

printf "{{var1: %s\tvar2: %s\n}}" "{{$VAR1}}" "{{$VAR2}}"

Store a formatted message in a variable (does not work on Zsh)

printf -v {{myvar}} {{"This is %s = %d\n" "a year" 2016}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/printf

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