PHP Outputting the Value of a Variable printf vs sprintf
Example
printf will output a formatted string using placeholders
sprintf will return the formatted string
$name = 'Jeff';
// The `%s` tells PHP to expect a string
// ↓ `%s` is replaced by ↓
printf("Hello %s, How's it going?", $name);
#> Hello Jeff, How's it going?
// Instead of outputting it directly, place it into a variable ($greeting)
$greeting = sprintf("Hello %s, How's it going?", $name);
echo $greeting;
#> Hello Jeff, How's it going?
It is also possible to format a number with these 2 functions. This can be used to format a decimal value used to represent money so that it always has 2 decimal digits.
$money = 25.2;
printf('%01.2f', $money);
#> 25.20
The two functions vprintf and vsprintf operate as printf and sprintf, but accept a format string and an array of values, instead of individual variables.
