Formatted print

Printing is handled by a series of macros defined in std::fmt some of which are:

format!: write formatted text to String
print!: same as format! but the text is printed to the console (io::stdout).
println!: same as print! but a newline is appended.
eprint!: same as print! but the text is printed to the standard error (io::stderr).
eprintln!: same as eprint! but a newline is appended.

All parse text in the same fashion. As a plus, Rust checks formatting correctness at compile time.

fn main() {
    // In general, the `{}` will be automatically replaced with any
    // arguments. These will be stringified.
    println!("{} days", 31);

    // Positional arguments can be used. Specifying an integer inside `{}`
    // determines which additional argument will be replaced. Arguments start
    // at 0 immediately after the format string.
    println!("{0}, this is {1}. {1}, this is {0}", "Alice", "Bob");

    // As can named arguments.
    println!("{subject} {verb} {object}",
             object="the lazy dog",
             subject="the quick brown fox",
             verb="jumps over");

    // Different formatting can be invoked by specifying the format character
    // after a `:`.
    println!("Base 10:               {}",   69420); // 69420
    println!("Base 2 (binary):       {:b}", 69420); // 10000111100101100
    println!("Base 8 (octal):        {:o}", 69420); // 207454
    println!("Base 16 (hexadecimal): {:x}", 69420); // 10f2c

    // You can right-justify text with a specified width. This will
    // output "    1". (Four white spaces and a "1", for a total width of 5.)
    println!("{number:>5}", number=1);

    // You can pad numbers with extra zeroes,
    println!("{number:0>5}", number=1); // 00001
    // and left-adjust by flipping the sign. This will output "10000".
    println!("{number:0<5}", number=1); // 10000

    // You can use named arguments in the format specifier by appending a `$`.
    println!("{number:0>width$}", number=1, width=5);

    // Rust even checks to make sure the correct number of arguments are used.
    println!("My name is {0}, {1} {0}", "Bond");
    // FIXME ^ Add the missing argument: "James"

    // Only types that implement fmt::Display can be formatted with `{}`. User-
    // defined types do not implement fmt::Display by default.

    #[allow(dead_code)] // disable `dead_code` which warn against unused module
    struct Structure(i32);

    // This will not compile because `Structure` does not implement
    // fmt::Display.
    // println!("This struct `{}` won't print...", Structure(3));
    // TODO ^ Try uncommenting this line

    // For Rust 1.58 and above, you can directly capture the argument from a
    // surrounding variable. Just like the above, this will output
    // "    1", 4 white spaces and a "1".
    let number: f64 = 1.0;
    let width: usize = 5;
    println!("{number:>width$}");
}

std::fmt contains many traits which govern the display of text. The base form of two important ones are listed below:

fmt::Debug: Uses the {:?} marker. Format text for debugging purposes.
fmt::Display: Uses the {} marker. Format text in a more elegant, user friendly fashion.

Here, we used fmt::Display because the std library provides implementations for these types. To print text for custom types, more steps are required.

Implementing the fmt::Display trait automatically implements the ToString trait which allows us to convert the type to String.

In line 43, #[allow(dead_code)] is an attribute which only applies to the module after it.

Activities

Fix the issue in the above code (see FIXME) so that it runs without error.
Try uncommenting the line that attempts to format the Structure struct (see TODO)
Add a println! macro call that prints: Pi is roughly 3.142 by controlling the number of decimal places shown. For the purposes of this exercise, use let pi = 3.141592 as an estimate for pi. (Hint: you may need to check the std::fmt documentation for setting the number of decimals to display)

Rust By Example

Formatted print

Activities

See also: