<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 6.5, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title>String Input Conversions (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))</title> <meta name="description" content="String Input Conversions (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="keywords" content="String Input Conversions (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="resource-type" content="document"> <meta name="distribution" content="global"> <meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo"> <link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top"> <link href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" rel="index" title="Concept Index"> <link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"> <link href="C_002dStyle-I_002fO-Functions.html#C_002dStyle-I_002fO-Functions" rel="up" title="C-Style I/O Functions"> <link href="Binary-I_002fO.html#Binary-I_002fO" rel="next" title="Binary I/O"> <link href="Numeric-Input-Conversions.html#Numeric-Input-Conversions" rel="prev" title="Numeric Input Conversions"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} blockquote.indentedblock {margin-right: 0em} blockquote.smallindentedblock {margin-right: 0em; font-size: smaller} blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller} div.display {margin-left: 3.2em} div.example {margin-left: 3.2em} div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em} kbd {font-style: oblique} pre.display {font-family: inherit} pre.format {font-family: inherit} pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller} pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller} span.nolinebreak {white-space: nowrap} span.roman {font-family: initial; font-weight: normal} span.sansserif {font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal} ul.no-bullet {list-style: none} --> </style> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="octave.css"> </head> <body lang="en"> <a name="String-Input-Conversions"></a> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="Binary-I_002fO.html#Binary-I_002fO" accesskey="n" rel="next">Binary I/O</a>, Previous: <a href="Numeric-Input-Conversions.html#Numeric-Input-Conversions" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Numeric Input Conversions</a>, Up: <a href="C_002dStyle-I_002fO-Functions.html#C_002dStyle-I_002fO-Functions" accesskey="u" rel="up">C-Style I/O Functions</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> </div> <hr> <a name="String-Input-Conversions-1"></a> <h4 class="subsection">14.2.15 String Input Conversions</h4> <p>This section describes the <code>scanf</code> input conversions for reading string and character values: ‘<samp>%s</samp>’ and ‘<samp>%c</samp>’. </p> <p>The ‘<samp>%c</samp>’ conversion is the simplest: it matches a fixed number of characters, always. The maximum field with says how many characters to read; if you don’t specify the maximum, the default is 1. This conversion does not skip over initial whitespace characters. It reads precisely the next <var>n</var> characters, and fails if it cannot get that many. </p> <p>The ‘<samp>%s</samp>’ conversion matches a string of non-whitespace characters. It skips and discards initial whitespace, but stops when it encounters more whitespace after having read something. </p> <p>For example, reading the input: </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example"> hello, world </pre></div> <p>with the conversion ‘<samp>%10c</samp>’ produces <code>" hello, wo"</code>, but reading the same input with the conversion ‘<samp>%10s</samp>’ produces <code>"hello,"</code>. </p> </body> </html>