Within the control string for the scanf() function, the % character identifies the start of a format specification for an item of data.
f that follows the % indicates that the input should be interpreted as a floating-point value.
The following table lists the basic set of format specifiers you can use for reading data of various types.
| Action | Required control string |
|---|---|
| To read a value of type short | %hd |
| To read a value of type int | %d |
| To read a value of type long | %ld |
| To read a value of type float | %f or %e |
| To read a value of type double | %lf or %le |
in the %ld and %lf format specifiers, l is lowercased.
You must always prefix the name of the variable that's receiving the input value with &.