Description

    String_Type s, fmt;
    Ref_Type r1, ..., rN

The sscanf function parses the string s according to the format fmt and sets the variables whose references are given by r1, ..., rN. The function returns the number of references assigned, or -1 upon error.

The format string fmt consists of ordinary characters and conversion specifiers. A conversion specifier begins with the special character % and is described more fully below. A white space character in the format string matches any amount of whitespace in the input string. Parsing of the format string stops whenever a match fails.

The % is used to denote a conversion specifier whose general form is given by %[*][width][type]format where the brackets indicate optional items. If * is present, then the conversion will be performed by no assignment to a reference will be made. The width specifier specifies the maximum field width to use for the conversion. The type modifier is used to indicate size of the object, e.g., a short integer, as follows.

If type is given as the character h, then if the format conversion is for an integer (dioux), the object assigned will be a short integer. If type is l, then the conversion will be to a long integer for integer conversions, or to a double precession floating point number for floating point conversions.

The format specifier is a character that specifies the conversion:

       %     Matches a literal percent character.  No assigment is
             performed.
       d     Matches a signed decimal integer.
       D     Matches a long decimal integer (equiv to `ld')
       u     Matches an unsigned decimal integer
       U     Matches an unsigned long decimal integer (equiv to `lu')
       i     Matches either a hexidecimal integer, decimal integer, or
             octal integer.
       I     Equivalent to `li'.
       x     Matches a hexidecimal integer.
       X     Matches a long hexidecimal integer (same as `lx').
       e,f,g Matches a decimal floating point number (Float_Type).
       E,F,G Matches a double precision floating point number, same as `lf'.
       s     Matches a string of non-whitespace characters (String_Type).
       c     Matches one character.  If width is given, width
             characters are matched.
       n     Assigns the number of characters scanned so far.
       [...] Matches zero or more characters from the set of characters
             enclosed by the square brackets.  If '^' is given as the
             first character, then the complement set is matched.