Why doesn't %zd printf format work in VS2010?

Question

Following piece of my code does not print the value in visual studio.

int main() { 
    intptr_t P = 10;
    printf("test value is %zd",P);
    return 0;
}

OUTPUT:

test value is zd

I expect the the above code print

test value is 10

i am using intptr_t instead of integer so as to make the code to adjust in both the 32 bit and 64 bit architecture.

Please use a consistent indenting style. It will help both us and you read your code. — bdonlan, Jul 11 '11 at 19:33
@bdonlan and Bart, Thanks for the suggestion and i am sorry for everything :) — thetna, Jul 11 '11 at 19:40

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 11 '11 at 19:35

4

The z prefix isn't defined in Microsoft's version of printf. I think the I prefix might work. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/tcxf1dw6.aspx

answered Jul 11 '11 at 19:35

Mark Ransom

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score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 11 '11 at 19:37

4

Although the z length specifier is supported in C99, Visual Studio 2010 does not support C99, and instead conforms to an older version of C that was missing the z length specifier. As an extension, VS2010 does support the I length specifier instead for size_t, but this is not portable to other platforms.

I would recommend using an unsigned long long with the %llu specifier instead; the overhead is minimal and it's portable to C99 platforms as well.

answered Jul 11 '11 at 19:37

bdonlan

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The MS documentation doesn't allow `%llu` as an option, only `%lld`. And you'd want to cast the parameter to the proper size too. – Mark Ransom Jul 11 '11 at 20:41
@Mark Ransom would like to use **uintptr_t** as well for the unsigned intger. What do you suggest for me in this case? – thetna Jul 11 '11 at 20:48
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9610747/which-c99-features-are-available-in-the-ms-visual-studio-compiler – Ciro Santilli Путлер Капут 六四事 Oct 02 '15 at 09:33

tomlogic · Answer 3 · 2011-07-11T22:19:55.260

2

For portable code, #include <inttypes.h> and use PRIdPTR in your printf format string.

printf("test value is %" PRIdPTR, P);

The Wikipedia page for inttypes.h has a link to a version of that file that will work with Visual C++, and would probably work with VS2010 as well (if Microsoft didn't add an inttypes.h).

PRIdPTR is for intptr_t, PRIuPTR is for uintptr_t.

edited Jul 11 '11 at 22:19

answered Jul 11 '11 at 20:27

tomlogic

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Since inttypes.h is still not there in VS2012, [here's a current link to the implementation tom mentioned, now on code.google.com](https://code.google.com/p/msinttypes/) – Rick Berge Jun 12 '13 at 15:12

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 24 '13 at 17:28

1

Visual C++, as of VS 2013, does not support %z. If you want future versions to support it then vote on this bug:

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/806338/vc-printf-and-scanf-should-support-z

answered Oct 24 '13 at 17:28

Bruce Dawson

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I believe that support for this was added to VS 2015. – Bruce Dawson Sep 04 '15 at 05:59

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 15 '16 at 18:05

0

To print size_t you need to use %Iu in VS and %zu in gcc

answered Feb 15 '16 at 18:05

jenkas

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Why doesn't %zd printf format work in VS2010?

5 Answers5