printf [ -v name ] format [ arg ... ]
       Print  the arguments according to the format specification. For-
       matting rules are the same as used in C.  The  same  escape  se-
       quences  as for echo are recognised in the format. All C conver-
       sion specifications ending in one of csdiouxXeEfgGn are handled.
       In addition to this, `%b' can be used instead of `%s'  to  cause
       escape  sequences  in the argument to be recognised and `%q' can
       be used to quote the argument in such a way that allows it to be
       reused as shell input. With the numeric  format  specifiers,  if
       the  corresponding  argument  starts with a quote character, the
       numeric value of the following character is used as  the  number
       to  print;  otherwise the argument is evaluated as an arithmetic
       expression. See the  section  `Arithmetic  Evaluation'  in  zsh-
       misc(1)  for a description of arithmetic expressions. With `%n',
       the corresponding argument is taken as an  identifier  which  is
       created as an integer parameter.

       Normally, conversion specifications are applied to each argument
       in  order but they can explicitly specify the nth argument is to
       be used by replacing `%' by `%n$' and `*' by `*n$'.  It is  rec-
       ommended  that  you do not mix references of this explicit style
       with the normal style and the handling of such mixed styles  may
       be subject to future change.

       If  arguments  remain unused after formatting, the format string
       is reused until all arguments have been consumed. With the print
       builtin, this can be suppressed by using the -r option. If  more
       arguments  are  required by the format than have been specified,
       the behaviour is as if zero or an empty string had  been  speci-
       fied as the argument.

       The -v option causes the output to be stored as the value of the
       parameter  name, instead of printed. If name is an array and the
       format string is reused when consuming arguments then one  array
       element will be used for each use of the format string.