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How do we pronounce %, in something like %d? Is it pronounced as:

  1. per-cent d
  2. mod d

or, is there some other accepted/generalized way?

Priyanshul Govil
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    It is context-specific, even in C. – Lawrence Mar 01 '21 at 13:11
  • @Lawrence I am specifically referring to format specifiers, as in printf("%d", ...) and not in modulo operations. – Priyanshul Govil Mar 01 '21 at 13:12
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    May I suggest you ask here https://cs.stackexchange.com/ – chasly - supports Monica Mar 01 '21 at 13:29
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    I’m voting to close this question because it relates to a specialist field and should be asked on our Computer Science stack exchange. – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Mar 01 '21 at 13:42
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    I think you've answered your own question by saying I am specifically referring to format specifiers, as in printf("%d", ...) and not in modulo operations.** If the "mod" interpretation isn't relevant, *don't use it*. – FumbleFingers Mar 01 '21 at 13:45
  • @FumbleFingers does that mean I pronounce it as percent? – Priyanshul Govil Mar 01 '21 at 14:03
  • @ChappoHasn'tForgottenMonica the reason I asked here was that I saw a question of a similar type on this SE. – Priyanshul Govil Mar 01 '21 at 14:05
  • The vote to close isn't meant as a criticism. We get so many off-topic questions that sometimes the odd one slips through, so I understand that you may have seen this kind of question here. Nonetheless, your question is so profession-specific that it's unlikely to be useful to general users on EL&U, whereas it would be quite appropriate to ask on the CS site - see https://cs.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic. :-) – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Mar 01 '21 at 14:23
  • Your question also needs more detail, no matter which site you ask it on. How you pronounce it must surely depend to some extent on which country or region you're in? – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Mar 01 '21 at 14:28
  • @ChappoHasn'tForgottenMonica Oh no, I didn't take it as criticism. This wasn't suitable for Stack Overflow so I asked here. Anyway, I'll ask it on CS SE, thanks for the suggestion. And the pronunciation is more of a religious thing than country-dependent ;) – Priyanshul Govil Mar 01 '21 at 14:40
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    Yes. The default name for the % symbol is "percent [sign]", so even though the usage in a printf() format string is nothing to do with either "modulo" OR "for each 100", you should use that default name. – FumbleFingers Mar 01 '21 at 15:23
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    (In retrospect, I now regret my closevote. You can't really look up a percent sign in many dictionaries, and if What Is the Real Name of the #? was a valid ELU question, it's not obvious to me this one is so very different.) – FumbleFingers Mar 01 '21 at 15:28

1 Answers1

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The pronunciation depends on the context.

In most cases, you would say percent. A couple of examples:

  • for a percentage (such as printf("100%")), you would say "100 percent"
  • within a format string (such as printf("%d", 2)), you would say "printf of percent d"

As a modulo operator, you would say mod.

  • rem = a % 2 would be pronounced "a mod 2"
rajah9
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    But it's *not* "for a percentage, in a format string". The use in format strings is purely a *convention*, which no more relates to "percentage" than it does to "modulo". – FumbleFingers Mar 01 '21 at 15:30
  • Agreed, and I have reworded the examples to reflect the convention. – rajah9 Mar 01 '21 at 15:51