Why is %c used in C?

Question

According to K&R C section 1.6, a char is a type of integer. So why do we need %c . And why can't we use %d for everything?

Answer 1

Because %d will print the numeric character code of the char :

printf("%d", 'a');

prints 97 (on an ASCII system), while

printf("%c", 'a');

prints a .

Answer 2

While it's an integer, the %c interprets its numeric value as a character value for display. For instance for the character a :

If you used %d you'd get an integer, eg, 97, the internal representation of the character a

vs

using %c to display the character ' a ' itself (if using ASCII)

Ie, it's a matter of internal representation vs interpretation for external purposes (such as with printf )

Answer 3

Roughly speaking, %c prints the ASCII representation of the character. %d prints its decimal value.

Answer 4

If you use %c , you'll print (or scan) a character, or char. If you use %d , you'll print (or scan) an integer.

printf("%d", 0x70);

How will the machine would know that you want to output a character, not its equivalent ASCII value?

Answer 5

％d认为char是32位并打印它像一个整数，但％c将char的int值转换为ascii字符然后打印它。

Answer 6

%d用于打印decimal(integer)数字，而%c用于打印character 。如果您尝试打印%d格式的字符，计算机将打印该ASCII代码。