PHP - Warning: printf(): Too few arguments strange issue

Question

I have a strange error

When i run the following code, once in a while i get

Warning: printf(): Too few arguments in /www/api/class.InvoicePayment.inc.php on line 92

However i don't understand why this happens because in my coding i have this line as

if($output!="")
      printf($output);

how can the this printf get a warning even when the output variable is not empty ..

us3.php.net/manual/en/function.printf.php Basically your output has some kind of placeholder, e.g. %s, and you are not passing any values that should replace the placeholders. — Charles Sprayberry
– Charles Sprayberry, Commented Jul 17, 2012 at 1:34
One fix (assuming PHP's printf is similar to C's) is to change printf($output) to printf("%s", $output) — Keith Thompson
– Keith Thompson, Commented Jul 17, 2012 at 2:07

James McLeod · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-17 10:03:48Z

3

This could happen if $output contains one or more format specifiers. Can you use echo instead of printf?

edited Jul 17, 2012 at 10:03

answered Jul 17, 2012 at 1:34

James McLeod

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

3

As written in the first answer by James McLeod, maybe that helps you:

printf(str_tr($output, '%', '%%');

You need to escape % characters of $output first. That's done by adding another % in front of them. See as well the sprintf manual page^Docs that explains the formatting codes, specifically this part:

6. A type specifier that says what type the argument data should be treated as. Possible types:

% - a literal percent character. No argument is required.

The important message here is that with %% instead of % no argument is required.

But that's merely for explanation, better is in you case:

print $output;

You do not need to do any formatted printing here, so use print^Docs instead of printf.

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

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answered Jul 18, 2012 at 19:20

hakre

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:43:42Z

 $replyTemplate = '<div class="module_content">
                    <fieldset style="width:100%%; float:left;">
                        <table width="100%%" align="center" border="1">
                            <tr>
                                <td width="15%%">
                                    <h3>%s</h3>
                                </td>
                                <td width="85%%">
                                    <h3>2015/06/11 09:06</h3>
                                    <h4>%s</h4>
                                </td>
                            </tr>
                        </table>
                    </fieldset><div class="clear"></div>
                </div>';

and use sprintf instead printf.

Example from : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30776376/using-printf-to-format-html-too-few-arguments

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