What is the difference between %g and %f in C?

E = exponent expression, simply means power(10, n) or 10 ^ n

F = fraction expression, default 6 digits precision

G = gerneral expression, somehow smart to show the number in a concise way (but really?)

See the below example,

The code

void main(int argc, char* argv[])  
{  
        double a = 4.5;
        printf("=>>>> below is the example for printf 4.5\n");
        printf("%%e %e\n",a);
        printf("%%f %f\n",a);
        printf("%%g %g\n",a);
        printf("%%E %E\n",a);
        printf("%%F %F\n",a);
        printf("%%G %G\n",a);
          
        double b = 1.79e308;
        printf("=>>>> below is the exbmple for printf 1.79*10^308\n");
        printf("%%e %e\n",b);
        printf("%%f %f\n",b);
        printf("%%g %g\n",b);
        printf("%%E %E\n",b);
        printf("%%F %F\n",b);
        printf("%%G %G\n",b);

        double d = 2.25074e-308;
        printf("=>>>> below is the example for printf 2.25074*10^-308\n");
        printf("%%e %e\n",d);
        printf("%%f %f\n",d);
        printf("%%g %g\n",d);
        printf("%%E %E\n",d);
        printf("%%F %F\n",d);
        printf("%%G %G\n",d);
}  

The output

=>>>> below is the example for printf 4.5
%e 4.500000e+00
%f 4.500000
%g 4.5
%E 4.500000E+00
%F 4.500000
%G 4.5
=>>>> below is the exbmple for printf 1.79*10^308
%e 1.790000e+308
%f 178999999999999996376899522972626047077637637819240219954027593177370961667659291027329061638406108931437333529420935752785895444161234074984843178962619172326295244262722141766382622299223626438470088150218987997954747866198184686628013966119769261150988554952970462018533787926725176560021258785656871583744.000000
%g 1.79e+308
%E 1.790000E+308
%F 178999999999999996376899522972626047077637637819240219954027593177370961667659291027329061638406108931437333529420935752785895444161234074984843178962619172326295244262722141766382622299223626438470088150218987997954747866198184686628013966119769261150988554952970462018533787926725176560021258785656871583744.000000
%G 1.79E+308
=>>>> below is the example for printf 2.25074*10^-308
%e 2.250740e-308
%f 0.000000
%g 2.25074e-308
%E 2.250740E-308
%F 0.000000
%G 2.25074E-308

See any reference manual, such as the man page:

f,F

The double argument is rounded and converted to decimal notation in the style [-]ddd.ddd, where the number of digits after the decimal-point character is equal to the precision specification. If the precision is missing, it is taken as 6; if the precision is explicitly zero, no decimal-point character appears. If a decimal point appears, at least one digit appears before it. (The SUSv2 does not know about F and says that character string representations for infinity and NaN may be made available. The C99 standard specifies '[-]inf' or '[-]infinity' for infinity, and a string starting with 'nan' for NaN, in the case of f conversion, and '[-]INF' or '[-]INFINITY' or 'NAN*' in the case of F conversion.)

g,G

The double argument is converted in style f or e (or F or E for G conversions). The precision specifies the number of significant digits. If the precision is missing, 6 digits are given; if the precision is zero, it is treated as 1. Style e is used if the exponent from its conversion is less than -4 or greater than or equal to the precision. Trailing zeros are removed from the fractional part of the result; a decimal point appears only if it is followed by at least one digit.

They are both examples of floating point input/output.

%g and %G are simplifiers of the scientific notation floats %e and %E.

%g will take a number that could be represented as %f (a simple float or double) or %e (scientific notation) and return it as the shorter of the two.

The output of your print statement will depend on the value of sum.