In C, the printf() function is a standard library function that is used to output text to the console. It takes a format string and a set of arguments, and prints the formatted output to the console. The format string is a string that contains special placeholders called format specifiers, which indicate how the corresponding arguments should be formatted.

Here is an example of how to use the printf() function:

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#include <stdio.h> int main() {    int x = 5;    float y = 3.14;    char z = 'A';    printf("x = %d, y = %f, z = %c\n", x, y, z);    return 0; }

In this example, the format string is "x = %d, y = %f, z = %c\n", which contains three format specifiers: %d, %f, and %c. The format specifiers indicate that the first argument should be formatted as an integer, the second argument should be formatted as a floating-point number, and the third argument should be formatted as a character.

The printf() function supports several format specifiers, including:

• %d or %i for integers
• %f for floating-point numbers
• %c for characters
• %s for strings
• %x or %X for hexadecimal integers
• %o for octal integers
• %p for pointers

It's also possible to include width and precision in the format specifiers for example, %5d for a width of 5