vfprintf, _vfprintf_l, vfwprintf, _vfwprintf_l

Article
06/05/2017

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Write formatted output using a pointer to a list of arguments. More secure versions of these functions exist; see vfprintf_s, _vfprintf_s_l, vfwprintf_s, _vfwprintf_s_l.

Syntax

int vfprintf(  
   FILE *stream,  
   const char *format,  
   va_list argptr   
);  
int _vfprintf_l(  
   FILE *stream,  
   const char *format,  
   locale_t locale,  
   va_list argptr   
);  
int vfwprintf(  
   FILE *stream,  
   const wchar_t *format,  
   va_list argptr   
);  
int _vfwprintf_l(  
   FILE *stream,  
   const wchar_t *format,  
   locale_t locale,  
   va_list argptr   
);

Parameters

stream
Pointer to FILE structure.

format
Format specification.

argptr
Pointer to list of arguments.

locale
The locale to use.

For more information, see Format Specifications.

Return Value

vfprintf and vfwprintf return the number of characters written, not including the terminating null character, or a negative value if an output error occurs. If either stream or format is a null pointer, the invalid parameter handler is invoked, as described in Parameter Validation. If execution is allowed to continue, the 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, then formats and writes the given data to stream.

vfwprintf is the wide-character version of vfprintf; the two functions behave identically if the stream is opened in ANSI mode. vfprintf doesn't currently support output into a UNICODE stream.

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.

Important

Ensure that format is not a user-defined string. For more information, see Avoiding Buffer Overruns.

Generic-Text Routine Mappings

TCHAR.H routine	_UNICODE & _MBCS not defined	_MBCS defined	_UNICODE defined
`_vftprintf`	`vfprintf`	`vfprintf`	`vfwprintf`
`_vftprintf_l`	`_vfprintf_l`	`_vfprintf_l`	`_vfwprintf_l`

Requirements

Routine	Required header	Optional headers
`vfprintf`, _`vfprintf_l`	<stdio.h> and <stdarg.h>	<varargs.h>*
`vfwprintf`, _`vfwprintf_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.

.NET Framework Equivalent

Not applicable. To call the standard C function, use PInvoke. For more information, see Platform Invoke Examples.