# Printf interface
**URL:** https://community.freefem.org/t/printf-interface/800
**Category:** Feature Request
**Created:** [February 12, 2021, 4:49am UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/printf-interface/800 "2021-02-12T04:49:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@arousta](https://community.freefem.org/u/arousta)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2021, 4:49am UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/printf-interface/800/1 "2021-02-12T04:49:53Z")
I think it would be great to have printf in freefem. Syntax is shorter (and I believe easier to read) and better fits to the overall style of the freefem code.
---
### Author:  [@julienG](https://community.freefem.org/u/julienG)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2021, 8:54am UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/printf-interface/800/2 "2021-02-12T08:54:28Z")
Hi, doesn’t `ofstream` do the job?
> real a1=1.0,a2=2.0;
> ofstream output(“file.dat”);
> output \<\< a1 \<\< " "
> \<\< a2 \<\< " "
> \<\
### Author:  [@frederichecht](https://community.freefem.org/u/frederichecht)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2021, 12:51pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/printf-interface/800/3 "2021-02-12T12:51:52Z")
You can try to do this!
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### Author:  [@arousta](https://community.freefem.org/u/arousta)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2021, 7:47am UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/printf-interface/800/4 "2021-02-13T07:47:24Z")
Yes does the job. But as I mentioned printf is more concise and convenient than long c++ style. Compare your minimal example with something like printf(output,"%f %f\n",a1,a2);
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### Author:  [@arousta](https://community.freefem.org/u/arousta)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2021, 7:49am UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/printf-interface/800/5 "2021-02-13T07:49:14Z")
Well, if it is not very complicated I can try!
Can you point me to an example (the simplest) of interfacing with some C code in freefem?
Merci
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### Author:  [@prj](https://community.freefem.org/u/prj)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2021, 9:29am UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/printf-interface/800/6 "2021-02-13T09:29:41Z")
I’m curious as well to see how to define variadic functions in FreeFEM DSL.
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### Author:  [@frederichecht](https://community.freefem.org/u/frederichecht)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/printf-interface/800/7 "2021-05-06T14:46:26Z")
no problem see function like
Global.Add(“adaptmesh”,“(”,new OneOperatorCode);
I have build a small starting exemple
[printf.edp](https://community.freefem.org/uploads/short-url/tTzJuYnmnxbvCaspqpIImHs3WWk.edp) (49 Bytes)
[printf.cpp.edp](https://community.freefem.org/uploads/short-url/4EMwA2lAhHQGv2m0ZL2b33OIP5c.edp) (1.9 KB)
```
mv printf.cpp.edp in printf.cpp
ff-c++ printf.cpp
FreeFem++ printf.edp
```
Bon courage,
> [@frederichecht](#):
>
> start
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### Author:  [@arousta](https://community.freefem.org/u/arousta)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2021, 11:22pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/printf-interface/800/8 "2021-05-08T23:22:17Z")
Thanks Frederic for preparing this. I’ll try 🙂