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### 2.12 `ecvt`, `ecvtf`, `fcvt`, `fcvtf`—double or float to string

Synopsis

         #include <stdlib.h>

         char *ecvt(double val, int chars, int *decpt, int *sgn);
         char *ecvtf(float val, int chars, int *decpt, int *sgn);

         char *fcvt(double val, int decimals,
             int *decpt, int *sgn);
         char *fcvtf(float val, int decimals,
             int *decpt, int *sgn);

Description
`ecvt` and `fcvt` produce (null-terminated) strings of digits representating the `double` number val. `ecvtf` and `fcvtf` produce the corresponding character representations of `float` numbers.

(The `stdlib` functions `ecvtbuf` and `fcvtbuf` are reentrant versions of `ecvt` and `fcvt`.)

The only difference between `ecvt` and `fcvt` is the interpretation of the second argument (chars or decimals). For `ecvt`, the second argument chars specifies the total number of characters to write (which is also the number of significant digits in the formatted string, since these two functions write only digits). For `fcvt`, the second argument decimals specifies the number of characters to write after the decimal point; all digits for the integer part of val are always included.

Since `ecvt` and `fcvt` write only digits in the output string, they record the location of the decimal point in `*`decpt, and the sign of the number in `*`sgn. After formatting a number, `*`decpt contains the number of digits to the left of the decimal point. `*`sgn contains `0` if the number is positive, and `1` if it is negative.

Returns
All four functions return a pointer to the new string containing a character representation of val.

Portability
None of these functions are ANSI C.

Supporting OS subroutines required: `close`, `fstat`, `isatty`, `lseek`, `read`, `sbrk`, `write`.