sprintf()

sprintf() — Return a formatted string.

Built-in function of PHP 8.5. The manual lists it as available in PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8. This page is the reference card: signature, parameters and return value, plus the changelog and the example the manual provides.

What it does

Returns a string produced according to the formatting string format.

Signature

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

Parameters

Parameter	Type	What it takes
$format	string	An integer followed by a dollar sign $, to specify which number argument to treat in the conversion.
...$values	mixed

Return value

Returns a string produced according to the formatting string format.

Example

A runnable snippet:

$num = 5; $location = 'tree'; $format = 'There are %d monkeys in the %s'; echo sprintf($format, $num, $location);

Output:

There are 5 monkeys in the tree

Changelog

Version	Change
8.5.0	A formatter that does not specify a precision now correctly treats it as a precision of 0, instead of incorrectly resetting the precision.
8.0.0	This function no longer returns false on failure.
8.0.0	Throws a ValueError if the number of arguments is zero; previously this function emitted an E_WARNING instead.
8.0.0	Throws a ValueError if [width] is less than zero or bigger than PHP_INT_MAX; previously this function emitted an E_WARNING instead.
8.0.0	Throws a ValueError if [precision] is less than zero or bigger than PHP_INT_MAX; previously this function emitted an E_WARNING instead.
8.0.0	Throws an ArgumentCountError when fewer arguments are given than required; previously this function emitted an E_WARNING instead.