%s is a C format specifier for a string.

msg = g_strdup_printf (_("<b><big>Enter your password to run "
                         "the application '%s' as user %s"
                         "</big></b>"),
                         command, context->user);

means "where you see the first %s, replace it with the contents of command as a string, and where you see the second %s, replace it with the contents of context->user as a string.

Answer from BishopRook on Stack Overflow
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Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 6999572 › what-does-s-mean-inside-a-string-literal
printf - What does %s mean inside a string literal? - Stack Overflow

%s is a C format specifier for a string.

msg = g_strdup_printf (_("<b><big>Enter your password to run "
                         "the application '%s' as user %s"
                         "</big></b>"),
                         command, context->user);

means "where you see the first %s, replace it with the contents of command as a string, and where you see the second %s, replace it with the contents of context->user as a string.

Answer from BishopRook on stackoverflow.com
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Codecademy
codecademy.com › forum_questions › 549b598bd3292fcbe900bbc0
What does all the %s mean? | Codecademy
February 6, 2015 - I know what the % will do, but why does the letter after % differ?(%s, %d, %f, and maybe more?)
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › %s
%s - Wikipedia
September 21, 2023 - a marker in setting 'site search shortcuts' (in the "URL with %s in place of query" field) for Opera and Chromium-based browsers
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Stack Exchange
wordpress.stackexchange.com › questions › 115926 › what-is-the-meaning-of-s-1s-etc
php - What is the meaning of %s, %1$s etc.? - WordPress Development Stack Exchange

This is really more of a general PHP programming question and might get closed for that reason. But before that happens, let's see if I can't clear some of this up for you.

Those strings that start with % signs are in "printf format". For example, %2$s translates to "replace this token with the second parameter, and treat it like a string".

When you see a variable in curly braces inside a string, like "Today is {$day}", that's the same as putting the variable there without curly braces, like "Today is $day". But formatting the variable like this makes it stand out, so it's more clear there's a variable there. It also prevents other characters next to the variable name from getting interpreted as part of the name. Without curly braces, would PHP know what to do with "Your robot name would be {$firstName}Number5"? It would see "$firstNameNumber5" and look for a variable named $firstNameNumber5 instead of simply $firstName.

I'm not sure what you're asking about in the last example. Is it the __FILE__ you're confused by? That's a PHP Magic Constant that gets replaced with the full path to the file that bit of code is in.

Answer from Dave Ross on wordpress.stackexchange.com
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Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 997797 › what-does-s-mean-in-a-python-format-string
What does %s mean in a Python format string? - Stack Overflow

It is a string formatting syntax (which it borrows from C).

Please see "PyFormat":

Python supports formatting values into strings. Although this can include very complicated expressions, the most basic usage is to insert values into a string with the %s placeholder.

Here is a really simple example:

#Python 2
name = raw_input("who are you? ")
print "hello %s" % (name,)

#Python 3+
name = input("who are you? ")
print("hello %s" % (name,))

The %s token allows me to insert (and potentially format) a string. Notice that the %s token is replaced by whatever I pass to the string after the % symbol. Notice also that I am using a tuple here as well (when you only have one string using a tuple is optional) to illustrate that multiple strings can be inserted and formatted in one statement.

Answer from Andrew Hare on stackoverflow.com
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/rstudio › noob question: what is %s and %i in this code represent?
r/RStudio on Reddit: Noob question: What is %s and %i in this code represent?

sprintf is a wrapper for a C function that uses %s to represent "insert a string here" and %i to represent "insert an integer here". Arguments after the string get pasted into the string in order.

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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Cool_S
Cool S - Wikipedia
1 week ago - The Cool S, also known as the Universal S, is a graffiti sign in popular culture that is typically doodled on children's notebooks or graffitied on walls. The exact origin of the Cool S is unknown, but it became prevalent around the early 1970s as a part of graffiti culture.
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Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 4288973 › whats-the-difference-between-s-and-d-in-string-formatting
python - What's the difference between %s and %d in string formatting? - Stack Overflow

They are used for formatting strings. %s acts a placeholder for a string while %d acts as a placeholder for a number. Their associated values are passed in via a tuple using the % operator.

name = 'marcog'
number = 42
print '%s %d' % (name, number)

will print marcog 42. Note that name is a string (%s) and number is an integer (%d for decimal).

See https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting for details.

In Python 3 the example would be:

print('%s %d' % (name, number))
Answer from moinudin on stackoverflow.com
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Swift Forums
forums.swift.org › using swift
Formatting %s with RTL and system default encoding - Using Swift - Swift Forums
September 21, 2020 - ) says that "Because the %s specifier causes the characters to be interpreted in the system default encoding, the results can be variable, especially with right-to-left languages. For example, with RTL, %s inserts direction markers when the characters are not strongly directional.
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › S_(disambiguation)
S (disambiguation) - Wikipedia
1 week ago - Look up ѕ, Տ, Ꮪ, or Appendix:Variations of "s" in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. S is the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet. ... Long s (ſ), a form of the lower-case letter s formerly used where "s" occurred in the middle or at the beginning of a word · -s, a suffix added to ...
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Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 68898228 › what-does-s-stand-for-in-a-python-print-statement
file - What does %s" % stand for in a Python print statement - Stack Overflow
August 23, 2021 - I have been studying pickling and unpickling and a came across this - can someone please explain what it stands for? This is the code that led to the confusion
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Unix
unix.com › unix-for-dummies-questions-and-answers › 92479-what-does-percent-sign-mean.html
what the %s does percent sign-s mean?
October 18, 2017 - context: while reading tutorial on the read command, one of the first examples, demonstrating its use, follows as such: \\$ x=abc ; printf "x is no | The UNIX and Linux Forums
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Ubuntuforums
ubuntuforums.org › archive › index.php › t-946402.html
"%s %d %f", what are they called? [Archive] - Ubuntu Forums
Hello there. Im looking for a way to shape the output from one of my applications. A long time ago i used something that looked like: %s or %d for this kind of thing. I think i could put it to good use here, but sadly enough i cant remember how to use it. And i don't remember what this procedure ...
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › S-expression
S-expression - Wikipedia
2 weeks ago - In computer programming, an S-expression (or symbolic expression, abbreviated as sexpr or sexp) is an expression in a like-named notation for nested list (tree-structured) data. S-expressions were invented for and popularized by the programming language Lisp, which uses them for source code ...
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Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 42406146 › javascript-s-or-d-represents-string
ecmascript 6 - Javascript: %s or %d represents string? - Stack Overflow

What you are seeing there is the string substitution patterns that are built into console.log() or console.debug().

The pattern goes as I have presented below:

%s for a String

%d or %i for Number

%f for Floating points

%o for an Object

%j for an JSON

So essentially you are replacing the specifier with the values supplied as so:

var name = 'Chris';
console.log('Hi, my name is %s.', name);
// Hi, my name is Chris.

console.debug('Hi, my name is %s.', name);
// Hi, my name is Chris.

Docs:

  • Docs for Chrome
  • Docs for Firefox
  • Docs for IE
  • Docs for Node.js
  • Docs for Spec
Answer from Chris Cruz on stackoverflow.com
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Wiktionary
en.wiktionary.org › wiki › s
s - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
September 10, 2023 - Symbol for second, an SI unit of measurement of time.
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Britannica
britannica.com › dictionary › -'s
-'s Definition & Meaning | Britannica Dictionary
-'S meaning: used to form the possessive of singular nouns, of plural nouns not ending in s, of some pronouns, and of word groups that function as nouns or pronouns