[06:28]$ perldoc -f printf

       printf FILEHANDLE FORMAT, LIST
       printf FORMAT, LIST
               Equivalent to "print FILEHANDLE sprintf(FORMAT, LIST)", except
               that "$\" (the output record separator) is not appended.  The
               first argument of the list will be interpreted as the "printf"
               format. See "sprintf" for an explanation of the format
               argument.  If "use locale" is in effect, and POSIX::setlocale()
               has been called, the character used for the decimal separator
               in formatted floating point numbers is affected by the
               LC_NUMERIC locale.  See perllocale and POSIX.

               Don’t fall into the trap of using a "printf" when a simple
               "print" would do.  The "print" is more efficient and less error
               prone.

[06:28]$ perldoc -f sprintf

       sprintf FORMAT, LIST
               Returns a string formatted by the usual "printf" conventions of
               the C library function "sprintf".  See below for more details
               and see sprintf(3) or printf(3) on your system for an
               explanation of the general principles.

               For example:

                       # Format number with up to 8 leading zeroes
                       $result = sprintf("%08d", $number);

   <<<quite a bit of text snipped out>>>

               (minimum) width
                   Arguments are usually formatted to be only as wide as
                   required to display the given value. You can override the
                   width by putting a number here, or get the width from the
                   next argument (with "*") or from a specified argument (with
                   e.g. "*2$"):

                     printf '<%s>', "a";       # prints "<a>"
                     printf '<%6s>', "a";      # prints "<     a>"
                     printf '<%*s>', 6, "a";   # prints "<     a>"
                     printf '<%*2$s>', "a", 6; # prints "<     a>"
                     printf '<%2s>', "long";   # prints "<long>" (does not truncate)

                   If a field width obtained through "*" is negative, it has
                   the same effect as the "&#8722;" flag: left-justification.