string formatting php code example

Example 1: php sprintf

There are already some comments on using sprintf to force leading leading zeros but the examples only include integers. I needed leading zeros on floating point numbers and was surprised that it didn't work as expected.

Example:
<?php
sprintf('%02d', 1);
?>

This will result in 01. However, trying the same for a float with precision doesn't work:

<?php
sprintf('%02.2f', 1);
?>

Yields 1.00. 

This threw me a little off. To get the desired result, one needs to add the precision (2) and the length of the decimal seperator "." (1). So the correct pattern would be

<?php
sprintf('%05.2f', 1);
?>

Output: 01.00

Please see http://stackoverflow.com/a/28739819/413531 for a more detailed explanation.

Example 2: php sprintf

<?php
$num = 5;
$location = 'tree';

$format = 'There are %d monkeys in the %s';
echo sprintf($format, $num, $location);