puts and fputs
- C course
- Beginner
- Lesson 34/116
- 5 min
Learn to print strings with puts and fputs.
Printing strings with puts
puts(str) prints a string to the screen and automatically adds a new line at the end. It's simpler than printf; a good choice when you only need to print fixed text.
puts("Hello world!");
puts("Welcome");The output is two lines: each puts call adds \n at the end. Compared to printf, printf("Text\n") and puts("Text") give the same result. On error it returns EOF.
fputs and streams
fputs(str, stdout) writes a string to a given stream. stdout is standard output; stderr is the error output. Unlike puts, fputs does not add a new line automatically.
fputs("An error occurred\n", stderr);
fputs("OK\n", stdout);Writing errors to stderr is a good habit; it keeps them separate from normal output. stdout and stderr go to the same place in most terminals, but can be split with redirection.
Practice Print with puts and fputs
Write a C program. Print one string with puts("Hello world!");. Print a second string with fputs("Welcome\n", stdout);. Put #include <stdio.h> at the top.
Starter code
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void) {
// Print two strings with puts and fputs
return 0;
}Sample solution
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void) {
puts("Hello world!");
fputs("Welcome\n", stdout);
return 0;
}Expected output
Hello world! Welcome
Questions and answers
Review the lesson questions together with their answers. To test yourself, solve the lesson interactively.
1 Complete the puts call
____("Hello world!");puts("Hello world!");Explanation: puts prints the string and adds a new line.
2 Match the output functions
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
puts |
String + new line |
fputs |
String to a stream |
stdout |
Standard output |
stderr |
Error output |
3 What's the difference between puts and fputs?
puts("A");
fputs("A", stdout);- They are identical
- fputs adds a new line, puts does not
- puts adds a new line, fputs does not Correct answer
- puts only prints numbers
Explanation: The main difference is the new line behavior; puts adds, fputs does not.