I'm trying to find a good way to print leading 0, such as 01001 for a ZIP Code. While the number would be stored as 1001, what is a good way to do it?
I thought of using either case statements or if to figure out how many digits the number is and then convert it to an char array with extra 0's for printing, but I can't help but think there may be a way to do this with the printf format syntax that is eluding me.
The correct solution is to store the ZIP Code in the database as a STRING. Despite the fact that it may look like a number, it isn't. It's a code, where each part has meaning.
A number is a thing you do arithmetic on. A ZIP Code is not that.
If you are on a *nix machine:
man 3 printf
This will show a manual page, similar to:
0 The value should be zero padded. For d, i, o, u, x, X, a, A, e, E, f, F, g, and G conversions, the converted value is padded on the left with zeros rather than blanks. If the 0 and - flags both appear, the 0 flag is ignored. If a precision is given with a numeric conversion (d, i, o, u, x, and X), the 0 flag is ignored. For other conversions, the behavior is undefined.
Even though the question is for C, this page may be of aid.