How do I use sprintf() function in a perl script under Linux or UNIX?

perl printf() function is use to format and print data on screen.

You need to use sprintf to print or store formatted data/string to a variable or to a string.

Also note that Perl does its own sprintf formatting–it emulates the C function sprintf, but it doesn’t use it (except for floating-point numbers, and even then only the standard modifiers are allowed). As a result, any non-standard extensions in your local sprintf are not available from Perl.

perl printf() example

Following statement will round number to 2 digits after decimal point (type at shell prompt):
$ perl -e '$num=53535.35353535;printf ("Result = %.2f\n",$num);'

perl sprintf() example

Type following at shell prompt:

$ perl -e '$num=53535.35353535;$result=sprintf("Result = %.2f\n",$num);print "$result"'

If you need to store output to a string / variable called $result you need to use sprintf(). Here is a small script to make you idea more clear:

#!/usr/bin/perl
$num=585858.64645;
$result = sprintf("%.2f", $num);
$now=sprintf("Today is ".`date`);
print "$result\n";
print "$now\n";