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I Miss printf()

I’ve been finding myself doing more and more Java coding as of late (including rewriting several C/C++ CFX tags in Java). For the most part I have gotten used to the language (although I’ve found myself wanting to use C style preprocessor directives like #ifdef on more than one occasion). But the one thing I cannot get used to is not having an equivalent of the printf() functions (printf() sprintf() etc.). Fortunately I have found several third party printf() packages, but honestly, I consider the omission of printf() functionality in the core API a major oversight.

7 responses to “I Miss printf()”

  1. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    Why?
    I can’t see any reason why you would need to have a printf functionality in java. Considering things like concatenation can be done by operators, what does it matter?
    (Not to say that there IS no reason, I just can’t think of one)

  2. Jonas Galvez Avatar
    Jonas Galvez

    Yeah… That’s one of the things I always wanted to see in Java. I’ve been playing with Python lately and I found it wonderfull to see that kind of functionality as a native feature of the language.

  3. Ben Forta Avatar
    Ben Forta

    Mark, no, printf() is not about concatenation. printf() (and related functions) provide the ultimate string creation and parsing capabilities. Using sprintf(), for example, you can create a string that contains other strings, numbers, dates, and all sorts of formatting, all in a clean format. Yesterday I needed to construct a string that contained several other strings, a date, an error code, and more. I had to write several lines of code using concatenation and valueof() methods, that’s just plain ugly. I could have done it in one line of code with sprintf().

  4. mark Avatar
    mark

    Valid points.
    I’ve been happy without printf (sprintf and the like) but that’s just been me.
    I come from more of a Java BG than C/C++, so it all just depends on what you are used to :o).
    I always found printf and the like kinda irritating. Just my perspective I suppose.

  5. mike Avatar
    mike

    i dont miss printf, i use it every day along with a few other va_arg’d routines ive writen myself.

  6. Herman Avatar
    Herman

    Perhaps you should take advantage of the OOness of Java and get in the practive of using and overloading the ever-present toString() method.

  7. seancorfield Avatar
    seancorfield

    Java 1.5 brings true "varargs" syntax so you will soon be able to have a C-like printf() suite of functions.

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