---
name: "curs_printw"
section: "3"
platform: "freebsd"
package: "base"
version: "16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79"
release: "FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27)"
platforms: ["freebsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/curs_printw"
---

# curs\_printw(3)

write formatted output to a curses window

## NAME

**printw**, **wprintw**, **mvprintw**, **mvwprintw**, **vwprintw**, **vw\_printw** - write formatted output to a *curses* window

## SYNOPSIS

```
#include <curses.h>
```

**int printw(const char \****fmt***, ...);** **int wprintw(WINDOW \****win***, const char \****fmt***, ...);** **int mvprintw(int** *y***, int** *x***, const char \****fmt***, ...);** **int mvwprintw(WINDOW \****win***, int** *y***, int** *x***, const char \****fmt***, ...);**

**int vw\_printw(WINDOW \****win***, const char \****fmt***, va\_list** *varglist***);**

*/\* obsolete \*/* **int vwprintw(WINDOW \****win***, const char \****fmt***, va\_list** *varglist***);**

## DESCRIPTION

**printw,** **wprintw,** **mvprintw,** **and** **mvwprintw** **are analogous to** *printf***(3).** **In effect,** **the string that would be output by** *printf***(3) is instead output** **as though waddstr(3X) were used with** *win* **(or** **stdscr**) **as its first argument.**

**vwprintw** **and** **vw\_printw are analogous to** *vprintf***(3),** **and perform a wprintw using a variable argument list.** **The third argument is a** *va\_list***,** **a pointer to a list of arguments,** **as defined in** *stdarg.h***.**

## RETURN VALUE

**These functions return** **ERR** **upon failure and** **OK** **upon success.**

**In** *ncurses*, **failure occurs if the library cannot allocate enough memory for the** **buffer into which the output is formatted,** **or if the window pointer** *win* **is null.**

**Functions prefixed with “mv” first perform cursor movement and** **fail if the position** (*y*, *x*) **is outside the window boundaries.**

## NOTES

**No wide character counterpart functions are defined by the** **“wide”** *ncurses* **configuration nor by any standard.** **To format and write a wide-character string to a** *curses* **window,** **consider using** *swprintf***(3) and waddwstr(3X) or similar.**

## PORTABILITY

**X/Open Curses Issue 4 describes these functions.** **It specifies no error conditions for them.**

*ncurses* **defines vw\_printw and vwprintw identically to support** **legacy applications.** **However,** **the latter is obsolete.**

- •

  **X/Open Curses Issue 4 Version 2 (1996),** **marked vwprintw as requiring** *varargs.h* **and** **“TO BE WITHDRAWN”,** **and specified vw\_printw using the** *stdarg.h* **interface.**

- •

  **X/Open Curses Issue 5, Draft 2** **(December 2007) marked vwprintw (along with** **vwscanw and the** *termcap* **interface) as withdrawn.** **After incorporating review comments,** **this became** **X/Open Curses Issue 7 (2009).**

- •

  *ncurses* **provides vwprintw,** **but marks it as deprecated.**

## HISTORY

**4BSD (1980)** **introduced** *wprintw* **and its variants.** **It implemented all as functions,** **not macros;** **this initial distribution of** *curses* **preceded the ANSI C standard of 1989,** **prior to which a variadic macro facility was not widely available** **in the language.** *printw* **went unused in Berkeley distributions until 4.1cBSD (1983),** **which employed it in games.** **4BSD's** *wprintw* **did not use** *varargs.h*, **which had been available since Seventh Edition Unix (1979).** **In 1991** **(a couple of years after SVr4 was generally available,** **and after the C standard was published),** **other developers updated the library,** **using** *stdarg.h* **internally in 4.4BSD** *curses*. **Even with this improvement,** **BSD** *curses* **did not use function prototypes** **(nor even declare functions)** **in** *curses.h* **until 1992.**

**4BSD documented** *printw* **and** *wprintw* **tersely as “printf on** *stdscr*” **and “printf on** *win*”, **respectively.**

**SVr3 summarized the functions in three lines,** **asserting that they were analogous to** *printf***(3)** **and explaining that the string that** *printf***(3) would write to the** **standard output stream would instead be output using** *waddstr* **to the given window.**

**SVr3 added** *vwprintw*, **describing its third parameter as a** *va\_list*, **defined in** *varargs.h*, **and referred the reader to the manual pages for** *varargs* **and** *vprintf* **for detailed descriptions.**

**SVr4 (1989) introduced no new variations of** *printw*, **but provided for using either** *varargs.h* **or** *stdarg.h* **to define the** *va\_list* **type.**

**X/Open Curses Issue 4 (1995),** **defined** *vw\_printw* **to replace** *vwprintw*, **stating that its** *va\_list* **type is defined in** *stdarg.h*.

## SEE ALSO

**curses(3X),** **curs\_addstr(3X),** **curs\_scanw(3X),** **[printf(3)](/printf/3.md),** **[vprintf(3)](/vprintf/3.md)**