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The old System V C library provided three functions to convert numbers to strings, with unusual and hard-to-use semantics. The GNU C Library also provides these functions and some natural extensions.
These functions are only available in the GNU C Library and on systems descended
from AT&T Unix. Therefore, unless these functions do precisely what you
need, it is better to use sprintf
, which is standard.
All these functions are defined in stdlib.h.
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:ecvt | AS-Unsafe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.
The function ecvt
converts the floating-point number value
to a string with at most ndigit decimal digits. The
returned string contains no decimal point or sign. The first digit of
the string is non-zero (unless value is actually zero) and the
last digit is rounded to nearest. *decpt
is set to the
index in the string of the first digit after the decimal point.
*neg
is set to a nonzero value if value is negative,
zero otherwise.
If ndigit decimal digits would exceed the precision of a
double
it is reduced to a system-specific value.
The returned string is statically allocated and overwritten by each call
to ecvt
.
If value is zero, it is implementation defined whether
*decpt
is 0
or 1
.
For example: ecvt (12.3, 5, &d, &n)
returns "12300"
and sets d to 2
and n to 0
.
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:fcvt | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem | See POSIX Safety Concepts.
The function fcvt
is like ecvt
, but ndigit specifies
the number of digits after the decimal point. If ndigit is less
than zero, value is rounded to the ndigit+1’th place to the
left of the decimal point. For example, if ndigit is -1
,
value will be rounded to the nearest 10. If ndigit is
negative and larger than the number of digits to the left of the decimal
point in value, value will be rounded to one significant digit.
If ndigit decimal digits would exceed the precision of a
double
it is reduced to a system-specific value.
The returned string is statically allocated and overwritten by each call
to fcvt
.
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.
gcvt
is functionally equivalent to ‘sprintf(buf, "%*g",
ndigit, value’. It is provided only for compatibility’s sake. It
returns buf.
If ndigit decimal digits would exceed the precision of a
double
it is reduced to a system-specific value.
As extensions, the GNU C Library provides versions of these three
functions that take long double
arguments.
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:qecvt | AS-Unsafe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.
This function is equivalent to ecvt
except that it takes a
long double
for the first parameter and that ndigit is
restricted by the precision of a long double
.
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:qfcvt | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem | See POSIX Safety Concepts.
This function is equivalent to fcvt
except that it
takes a long double
for the first parameter and that ndigit is
restricted by the precision of a long double
.
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.
This function is equivalent to gcvt
except that it takes a
long double
for the first parameter and that ndigit is
restricted by the precision of a long double
.
The ecvt
and fcvt
functions, and their long double
equivalents, all return a string located in a static buffer which is
overwritten by the next call to the function. The GNU C Library
provides another set of extended functions which write the converted
string into a user-supplied buffer. These have the conventional
_r
suffix.
gcvt_r
is not necessary, because gcvt
already uses a
user-supplied buffer.
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.
The ecvt_r
function is the same as ecvt
, except
that it places its result into the user-specified buffer pointed to by
buf, with length len. The return value is -1
in
case of an error and zero otherwise.
This function is a GNU extension.
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.
The fcvt_r
function is the same as fcvt
, except that it
places its result into the user-specified buffer pointed to by
buf, with length len. The return value is -1
in
case of an error and zero otherwise.
This function is a GNU extension.
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.
The qecvt_r
function is the same as qecvt
, except
that it places its result into the user-specified buffer pointed to by
buf, with length len. The return value is -1
in
case of an error and zero otherwise.
This function is a GNU extension.
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.
The qfcvt_r
function is the same as qfcvt
, except
that it places its result into the user-specified buffer pointed to by
buf, with length len. The return value is -1
in
case of an error and zero otherwise.
This function is a GNU extension.
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