%i or %d to print integer in C using printf()?

Question

I am just learning C and I have a little knowledge of Objective-C due to dabbling in iOS development, however, in Objective-C I was using NSLog(@"%i", x); to print the variable x to the console however I have been reading a few C tutorials and they are saying to use %d instead of %i.

printf("%d", x); and printf("%i", x); both print x to the console correctly.

These both seem to get me to the same place so I am asking the experienced developers which is preferred? Is one more semantically correct or is right?

Solution 1

I am just adding example here because I think examples make it easier to understand.

In printf() they behave identically so you can use any either %d or %i. But they behave differently in scanf().

For example:

int main()
{
    int num,num2;
    scanf("%d%i",&num,&num2);// reading num using %d and num2 using %i

    printf("%d\t%d",num,num2);
    return 0;
}

Output:

You can see the different results for identical inputs.

num:

We are reading num using %d so when we enter 010 it ignores the first 0 and treats it as decimal 10.

num2:

We are reading num2 using %i.

That means it will treat decimals, octals, and hexadecimals differently.

When it give num2 010 it sees the leading 0 and parses it as octal.

When we print it using %d it prints the decimal equivalent of octal 010 which is 8.

Solution 2

d and i conversion specifiers behave the same with fprintf but behave differently for fscanf.

As some other wrote in their answer, the idiomatic way to print an int is using d conversion specifier.

Regarding i specifier and fprintf, C99 Rationale says that:

The %i conversion specifier was added in C89 for programmer convenience to provide symmetry with fscanf’s %i conversion specifier, even though it has exactly the same meaning as the %d conversion specifier when used with fprintf.

Solution 3

%d seems to be the norm for printing integers, I never figured out why, they behave identically.

Solution 4

both %d and %i can be used to print an integer

%d stands for "decimal", and %i for "integer." You can use %x to print in hexadecimal, and %o to print in octal.

You can use %i as a synonym for %d, if you prefer to indicate "integer" instead of "decimal."

On input, using scanf(), you can use use both %i and %d as well. %i means parse it as an integer in any base (octal, hexadecimal, or decimal, as indicated by a 0 or 0x prefix), while %d means parse it as a decimal integer.

check here for more explanation

why does %d stand for Integer?

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