Problems with zero filling a number.

dwatson06 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am trying to write a set of numbers to a file so that another programmer may reference them. This number needs to be zero filled with 9 digits. I can use the following to print out on the command line...
my $getNumber = 213;
printf "%09d$getNumber";
And it prints fine but when I write to file it writes%09d213.
Is there a simple sub included to pad numbers (or zero fill) to a given length?
Thank you,
Daniel

Comment on Problems with zero filling a number.

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Re: Problems with zero filling a number. by broquaint (Abbot) on Jul 15, 2002 at 18:52 UTC
Try re-reading the docs for `printf()` (which may require reading the docs for `sprintf()`) `printf "%09d", 213; __output__ 000000213` [download] HTH `_________ broquaint`	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Problems with zero filling a number. by thelenm (Vicar) on Jul 15, 2002 at 18:54 UTC
You'll want to pass `$getNumber` as a separate argument to `printf` (or `sprintf`), like this: `my $getNumber = 213; my $padded = sprintf("%09d", $getNumber);` [download] -- Mike `-- just,my${.02}`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Problems with zero filling a number. by Abigail-II (Bishop) on Jul 16, 2002 at 12:08 UTC
Very, very strange. Are you sure that you did a `printf`? Not that your code is correct as others have pointed out, but it shouldn't write `%09d213` either. I've tried it on all versions of Perl released since `5.000`, and they all print `000000000213`. From 5.7.1 onwards, it will print a warning as well. Abigail	[reply] [d/l] [select]