%i or %d to print integer in C using printf()?

Question

I am just learning C and I have a little knowledge of Objective-C due to dabbling in iOS development, however, in Objective-C I was using NSLog(@\"%i\", x); to

Answer 1

As others said, they produce identical output on printf, but behave differently on scanf. I would prefer %d over %i for this reason. A number that is printed with %d can be read in with %d and you will get the same number. That is not always true with %i, if you ever choose to use zero padding. Because it is common to copy printf format strings into scanf format strings, I would avoid %i, since it could give you a surprising bug introduction:

I write fprintf("%i ...", ...);

You copy and write fscanf(%i ...", ...);

I decide I want to align columns more nicely and make alphabetization behave the same as sorting: fprintf("%03i ...", ...); (or %04d)

Now when you read my numbers, anything between 10 and 99 is interpreted in octal. Oops.

If you want decimal formatting, just say so.