Difference between %d and %i format specifier in C language

Hello, readers welcome to new post. Today we will discuss Difference between %d and %i format specifiers in C language. In C language of programming %d and %i are called format specifiers. %d was used to specify the variable type as decimal and %i used for integer specification.

Note: %d is used to specify signed decimal integers and %i specifies integer

Simply, there is no difference for print() function output but printing in numbers through the use of %d or %i but for the use of scanf function differences exist. scanf() can detect base through %i but suppose base ten for %d. In this tutorial, we will learn some points that will help us to find the basic difference between %d and %i. So let’s get started

Table of Contents

What is Format specifiers in C

The format specifier are used in C programming language to define the input and outputs. Formate specifiers help the compiler to know the type of data in a variable when get input through use of scanf() function and printing using print() function

Commonly used Format specifiers are listed here

Format Specifier	Type
%c	Character
%d	it is an integer sign
%e or %E	it used as a scientific notation for float
%f	It used for Float values
%g or %G	It is like the %e or %E
%hi	Signed integer (short)
%hu	Unsigned Integer (short)
%i	Unsigned integer
%l or %ld or %li	Long
%lf	Double
%Lf	Long double
%lu	Unsigned int or unsigned long
%lli or %lld	Long long
%llu	Unsigned long long
%o	Octal representation
%p	Pointer
%s	String
%u	Unsigned int
%x or %X	Hexadecimal representation
%n	Prints nothing
%%	Prints % character

%d vs %i format specifier in C language

We will get the difference according to printf and scanf. First for printf
For printf, there is no difference between %i and %d format specifier. Let’s solve an example

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
int num = 15;

// print value for %d
printf(“num ans for %%d is = %d\n”, num);

// print value using %i
printf(“num ans for %%i is = %i\n”, num);

return 0;
}

Output:

num ans for %d is = 15
num ans for %i is = 15
Now find the difference on the basis of scanf

In the case of scanf function %d suppose the base as 10 but %i detects the base. So these two specifiers work in different fashions during input specifier configuration. So in simple form 015 will be 10 for %d and 15 for %i
Solve example

include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
	int a=0;
	int b=0;
	
	printf("Put value  a: ");
	scanf("%d",&x);

	printf("Put value b: ");
	scanf("%i",&b);	
	
	printf("a=%d, b=%d\n",a,b);
	
	return 0;
}
put value of a:20
put vaue of a:0x30
a=20, b=30

That is all about the Difference between %d and %i format specifiers in C language all details has explained.If you have any questions ask them here.