Why is format specifier %.3f giving an error in Java?

March 5, 2024

So I am trying to print first 3 digits of PI using floating point format specifier in java, using the following code:

public class PrettyPrinting {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        float a = 453.1274f;
        System.out.printf("Formatted number is %.2f \n", a);

        System.out.printf("Pi is: %.3f \n" + (float)Math.PI);
    }
}

And it is giving me the following Exception stack trace:

Formatted number is 453.13 
Pi is: Exception in thread "main" java.util.MissingFormatArgumentException: Format specifier '%.3f'
    at java.base/java.util.Formatter.format(Formatter.java:2688)
    at java.base/java.io.PrintStream.format(PrintStream.java:1209)
    at java.base/java.io.PrintStream.printf(PrintStream.java:1105)
    at PrettyPrinting.main(PrettyPrinting.java:6)

Process finished with exit code 1

I have tried with the format specifier of doble also but the issue still doesn’t get resolved and a different stack trace of Exception appears in the console. The error appears even without explicit typecasting.

>Solution :

You have a typo in the 2nd printf().

float a = 453.1274f;
System.out.printf(Locale.ENGLISH, "Formatted number is %.2f \n", a);
System.out.printf(Locale.ENGLISH, "Pi is: %.3f\n", Math.PI);