![Forrest logo](/images/logo.png)
printf:tldr:dc9bc
printf: Store a formatted message in a variable (does not work on zsh).
$ printf -v ${myvar} ${"This is %s = %d\n" "a year" 2016}
try on your machine
The command printf -v ${myvar} ${"This is %s = %d\n" "a year" 2016}
is used to format a string and assign it to a variable in the Bash shell.
Here's a breakdown of the command:
printf
: It is a command in Bash used to format and print output.-v ${myvar}
: It signifies that the formatted string should be assigned to the variablemyvar
.${"This is %s = %d\n" "a year" 2016}
: This part is the format string and its arguments. It uses the syntax${stringValue variable1 variable2 ...}
to specify the format string and its values."This is %s = %d\n"
is the format string which contains placeholders%s
and%d
.%s
is a placeholder for a string, and%d
is a placeholder for an integer."a year"
is the value that will be substituted for%s
.2016
is the value that will be substituted for%d
.
So, overall, the command will assign the formatted string "This is a year = 2016\n" to the variable myvar
.
This explanation was created by an AI. In most cases those are correct. But please always be careful and
never run a command you are not sure if it is safe.