Named after printf in C.

Text

Print text - without trailing newline by default.

$ printf Hello
Hello

With newline.

$ printf "Hello\n"
Hello

Expression

$ X=abc
$ printf "$X\n"
abc

Format type

Integer

$ printf "%d\n" 5
5

$ DISTANCE=15
$ printf "Distance is %5d km\n" $DISTANCE
Distance is 15 km

Float

Use 6 decimal places by default.

$ printf "%f\n" 5
5.000000

Multiline

$ printf %s "\
with quotes we can echo
several lines at a time
"

Store

Store the output in a variable, without printing.

-v Cause the output to be assigned to the variable var rather than being printed to the standard output.

$ printf -v MY_VAR "Hello $USER"
$ echo $MY_VAR
Hello mcurrin