NAME

       printw, wprintw, mvprintw, mvwprintw, vwprintw, vw_printw - print formatted output in curses windows

SYNOPSIS

       #include <curses.h>

       int printw(const char *fmt, ...);
       int wprintw(WINDOW *win, const char *fmt, ...);
       int mvprintw(int y, int x, const char *fmt, ...);
       int mvwprintw(WINDOW *win, int y, int x, const char *fmt, ...);
       int vw_printw(WINDOW *win, const char *fmt, va_list varglist);

       /* obsolete */
       int vwprintw(WINDOW *win, const char *fmt, va_list varglist);

DESCRIPTION

       The printw, wprintw, mvprintw and mvwprintw routines are analogous to printf [see printf(3)].  In effect,
       the string that would be output by printf is output instead as though waddstr were used on the given win‐
       dow.

       The  vwprintw and vw_printw routines are analogous to vprintf [see printf(3)] and perform a wprintw using
       a variable argument list.  The third argument is a va_list, a pointer to a list of arguments, as  defined
       in <stdarg.h>.

RETURN VALUE

       Routines  that  return  an  integer return ERR upon failure and OK (SVr4 only specifies "an integer value
       other than ERR") upon successful completion.

       X/Open defines no error conditions.  In this implementation, an error may be returned if it cannot  allo‐
       cate  enough  memory  for  the  buffer used to format the results.  It will return an error if the window
       pointer is null.

       Functions with a “mv” prefix first perform a cursor movement using wmove, and return an error if the  po‐
       sition is outside the window, or if the window pointer is null.

HISTORY

       While  printw  was  implemented in 4BSD, it was unused until 4.2BSD (which used it in games).  That early
       version of curses was before the ANSI C standard.  It did not use <varargs.h>, though that was available.
       In 1991 (a couple of years after SVr4 was generally available, and after the C standard  was  published),
       other  developers  updated the library, using <stdarg.h> internally in 4.4BSD curses.  Even with this im‐
       provement, BSD curses did not use function prototypes (or even declare functions) in the <curses.h> head‐
       er until 1992.

       SVr2 documented printw, wprintw tersely as “printf on stdscr” and tersely as “printf on win”, respective‐
       ly.

       SVr3 added mvprintw, and mvwprintw, with  a  three-line  summary  saying  that  they  were  analogous  to
       printf(3),  explaining that the string which would be output from printf(3) would instead be output using
       waddstr on the given window.  SVr3 also added vwprintw, saying that the third parameter is a va_list, de‐
       fined in <varargs.h>, and referring the reader to the manual pages for varargs and vprintf  for  detailed
       descriptions.

       SVr4  added  no  new variations of printw, but provided for using <varargs.h> or <stdarg.h> to define the
       va_list type.

       X/Open Curses added  vw_printw  to  replace  vwprintw,  stating  that  its  va_list  definition  requires
       <stdarg.h>.

PORTABILITY

       In  this implementation, vw_printw and vwprintw are equivalent, to support legacy applications.  However,
       the latter (vwprintw) is obsolete:

       •   The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 described these functions.  The function vwprintw is  marked  TO  BE
           WITHDRAWN, and is to be replaced by a function vw_printw using the <stdarg.h> interface.

       •   The  Single  Unix  Specification, Version 2 states that vw_printw  is preferred to vwprintw since the
           latter requires including <varargs.h>, which cannot be used in the same file as <stdarg.h>.  This im‐
           plementation uses <stdarg.h> for both, because that header is included in <curses.h>.

       •   X/Open Curses, Issue 5 (December 2007) marked vwprintw (along with vwscanw and the termcap interface)
           as withdrawn.

SEE ALSO

       ncurses(3NCURSES), addstr(3NCURSES), scanw(3NCURSES), curs_termcap(3X), printf(3), vprintf(3).

                                                                                                printw(3NCURSES)