The sprintf() and printf() functions in PHP are often used for formatting strings. While they are very similar, they serve slightly different purposes. Let’s dive into the practical differences between the two:

sprintf()

The sprintf() function is primarily used to format a string but does not print it directly. Instead, it returns the formatted string as a result. The function takes a format string as its first parameter, followed by the values to be inserted into the format string.

Here’s an example:

$name = "John";
$age = 30;

$result = sprintf("My name is %s and I'm %d years old.", $name, $age);
echo $result;

Output:

My name is John and I'm 30 years old.

In the code snippet above, the format string contains placeholders %s and %d which are replaced with the values of $name and $age, respectively. The formatted string is stored in the $result variable for later use.

printf()

On the other hand, the printf() function immediately outputs the formatted string. It does not return the formatted string as a result, as you see with sprintf().

Let’s take a look at an example:

$name = "John";
$age = 30;

printf("My name is %s and I'm %d years old.", $name, $age);

Output:

My name is John and I'm 30 years old.

In this code snippet, the formatted string is printed directly to the output without being stored in a variable. It’s useful when you want to print the formatted string directly without the need to store it or use it further in your code.

To summarize

As you can see, both sprintf() and printf() provide a good way to format strings in PHP. The one to use mainly depends on whether you need to store the formatted string or print it directly.

You can read more about sprintf() and printf(), along with some additional examples, on their respective documentation in the official PHP Manual.