Definitions for "Printf"
Several programming languages implement a printf function, to output a formatted string. It originated from the C programming language, where it has a prototype similar to the following: int printf(const char *format, ...) The string constant format provides a description of the output, with placeholders marked by "%" escape characters, to specify both the relative location and the type of output that the function should produce.
the section called “An example Bash script: mysystem.sh”, the section called “The printf program