warnings when using % and printf

[jeanluca]

Dear Monks,

I just tried the following:

use warnings ;
use strict ;

my $total = 99 ;
print "total is %s%\n", $total ;

Running this gives you/me the following warning:

Invalid conversion in printf: "%)" at /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7/M
+y_module.pm line 401.

Any suggestions how to get rid of this warning?

Thnx a lot
Luca

[Fletch]

The above mentioned ambiguities aside, you're probably trying to include a literal "%" in your output; if you read the docs for sprintf it shows you need to double it to get a single literal percent sign in the output.

[VSarkiss]

Your code sample and the error message don't match. You're using print and that error message is about printf. It's coming from somewhere else -- you need to figure out where first.

As to the error itself, there's no format specification %) (nor %\n). You may be thinking that the percent sign goes both before and after the format (like %s%). It doesn't, it only goes in front (like %s).

[swampyankee]

Also, %s is to output a string. Given that Perl will convert variables to numbers or strings as needed, this may be a trivial gripe, but for a numerical value, such as 99, you probably want something like %d or %f vs %s.

[HuckinFappy]

printf() uses the same formats as sprintf().

So here's a pointer to the sprintf() documentation, in case it helps you.

[jeanluca]

sorry, the print statement in my example should have been a printf!

Thnx for the answers
Luca

[mikasue]

Do you want %s%% so it prints a percent sign?

[jeanluca]

yes!!

[mikasue]

Is %s% necessary? Why the second %?

[jeanluca]

I need the % so I can print percentages!