grumpy

Well, yes, but that returned number includes things like newlines, line feeds, etc and doesn't get reset for a newline. A tab is also counted as one character, even if it effectively moves several spaces to the right. This means the return value from printf() is not related in a neat manner to the resultant position in a line - unless the data passed to it is closely controlled (eg one printf() call per line).

jim mcnamara

Dunno if this helps:

The %n format specifier tells you how many characters have been output at the point %n is encountered in the formatting process. It also is a good place for hackers to attack code, but if your code is an unprivileged report process, it may be allowable.

Downside: It does not carry over position information from previous printf calls. If you are writing to a file rather than the console with fprintf() maybe, then ftell() is useful if you write all fixed length strings to the output file. Otherwise you will have to use OS dependent calls to find your current cursor position.

WaltP

Yes, newlines are a character, so is a tab. But if you're trying to line up columns, it's foolish to use tabs at all and just as foolish to use newlines before you actually reach the end of the line. It's up to the programmer to reset the counter after every newline.

It's call "programmer control". The programmer has to be in contol of the code s/he's writing.

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Testing 001 010 011 100....

grumpy

Thanks for the lecture. If you check my earlier posts in this thread, you will find that is exactly my point.