vsprintf, _vsprintf_l, vswprintf, _vswprintf_l, __vswprintf_l

Article
11/16/2012

Write formatted output using a pointer to a list of arguments. More secure versions of these functions are available; see vsprintf_s, _vsprintf_s_l, vswprintf_s, _vswprintf_s_l.

int vsprintf(
   char *buffer,
   const char *format,
   va_list argptr 
); 
int _vsprintf_l(
   char *buffer,
   const char *format,
   locale_t locale,
   va_list argptr 
); 
int vswprintf(
   wchar_t *buffer,
   size_t count,
   const wchar_t *format,
   va_list argptr 
);
int _vswprintf_l(
   wchar_t *buffer,
   size_t count,
   const wchar_t *format,
   locale_t locale,
   va_list argptr 
);
int __vswprintf_l(
   wchar_t *buffer,
   const wchar_t *format,
   locale_t locale,
   va_list argptr 
);
template <size_t size>
int vsprintf(
   char (&buffer)[size],
   const char *format,
   va_list argptr 
); // C++ only
template <size_t size>
int _vsprintf_l(
   char (&buffer)[size],
   const char *format,
   locale_t locale,
   va_list argptr 
); // C++ only
template <size_t size>
int vswprintf(
   wchar_t (&buffer)[size],
   size_t count,
   const wchar_t *format,
   va_list argptr 
); // C++ only
template <size_t size>
int _vswprintf_l(
   wchar_t (&buffer)[size],
   size_t count,
   const wchar_t *format,
   locale_t locale,
   va_list argptr 
); // C++ only

Parameters

buffer
Storage location for output.
count
Maximum number of characters to store, in the UNICODE version of this function.
format
Format specification.
argptr
Pointer to list of arguments.
locale
The locale to use.

Return Value

vsprintf and vswprintf return the number of characters written, not including the terminating null character, or a negative value if an output error occurs. If buffer or format is a null pointer, these functions invoke the invalid parameter handler, as described in Parameter Validation. If execution is allowed to continue, these functions return -1 and set errno to EINVAL.

For information on these and other error codes, see _doserrno, errno, _sys_errlist, and _sys_nerr.

Remarks

Each of these functions takes a pointer to an argument list, and then formats and writes the given data to the memory pointed to by buffer.

The versions of these functions with the _l suffix are identical except that they use the locale parameter passed in instead of the current thread locale.

Security Note:
Using vsprintf, here is no way to limit the number of characters written, which means that code using this function is susceptible to buffer overruns. Use _vsnprintf instead, or call _vscprintf to determine how large a buffer is needed. Also, ensure that format is not a user-defined string. For more information, see Avoiding Buffer Overruns.

In Visual C++ 2005, vswprintf conforms to the ISO C Standard, which requires the second parameter, count, of type size_t. To force the old nonstandard behavior, define _CRT_NON_CONFORMING_SWPRINTFS. The old behavior may not be in a future version, so code should be changed to use the new conformant behavior.

In C++, these functions have template overloads that invoke the newer, secure counterparts of these functions. For more information, see Secure Template Overloads.

Generic-Text Routine Mappings

TCHAR.H routine	_UNICODE & _MBCS not defined	_MBCS defined	_UNICODE defined
_vstprintf	vsprintf	vsprintf	vswprintf
_vstprintf_l	_vsprintf_l	_vsprintf_l	_vswprintf_l

Requirements

Routine	Required header	Optional headers
vsprintf, _vsprintf_l	<stdio.h> and <stdarg.h>	<varargs.h>*
vswprintf, _vswprintf_l	<stdio.h> or <wchar.h>, and <stdarg.h>	<varargs.h>*

* Required for UNIX V compatibility.

For additional compatibility information, see Compatibility in the Introduction.

Example

// crt_vsprintf.c
// compile with: /W3
// This program uses vsprintf to write to a buffer.
// The size of the buffer is determined by _vscprintf.

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdarg.h>

void test( char * format, ... )
{
    va_list args;
    int     len;
    char    *buffer;

    // retrieve the variable arguments
    va_start( args, format );
    
    len = _vscprintf( format, args ) // _vscprintf doesn't count
                                + 1; // terminating '\0'
    
    buffer = (char*)malloc( len * sizeof(char) );

    vsprintf( buffer, format, args ); // C4996
    // Note: vsprintf is deprecated; consider using vsprintf_s instead
    puts( buffer );

    free( buffer );
}

int main( void )
{
   test( "%d %c %d", 123, '<', 456 );
   test( "%s", "This is a string" );
}

123 < 456 This is a string

.NET Framework Equivalent

System::String::Format