---
name: "curs_printw"
section: "3x"
platform: "macos"
package: "ncurses"
version: "79"
release: "macOS 26.5"
platforms: ["linux", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/curs_printw/3x"
---

# curs\_printw(3x)

print formatted output in curses windows

## NAME

**printw**, **wprintw**, **mvprintw**, **mvwprintw**, **vwprintw**, **vw\_printw** - print formatted output in **curses** windows

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

## DESCRIPTION

The **printw**, **wprintw**, **mvprintw** and **mvwprintw** routines are analogous to **printf** \[see [**printf**(3)](/printf/3.md)\].  In effect, the string that would be output by **printf** is output instead as though **waddstr** were used on the given window.

The **vwprintw** and **wv\_printw** routines are analogous to **vprintf** \[see [**printf**(3)](/printf/3.md)\] 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

Routines that return an integer return **ERR** upon failure and **OK** (SVr4 only specifies "an integer value other than **ERR**") upon successful completion.

X/Open defines no error conditions. In this implementation, an error may be returned if it cannot allocate enough memory for the buffer used to format the results. It will return an error if the window pointer is null.

Functions with a "mv" prefix first perform a cursor movement using **wmove**, and return an error if the position is outside the window, or if the window pointer is null.

## PORTABILITY

The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 describes these functions.  The function **vwprintw** is marked TO BE WITHDRAWN, and is to be replaced by a function **vw\_printw** using the **\<stdarg.h\>** interface. The Single Unix Specification, Version 2 states that **vw\_printw**  is preferred to **vwprintw** since the latter requires including **\<varargs.h\>**, which cannot be used in the same file as **\<stdarg.h\>**. This implementation uses **\<stdarg.h\>** for both, because that header is included in **\<curses.h**\>.

## SEE ALSO

**curses**(3X), [**printf**(3)](/printf/3.md), **[vprintf(3)](/vprintf/3.md)**