Formatted input corresponds to input from either files or string variables, and is used in the following commands:

Note that the meaning of the formatting string changes slightly here - in essence, the type and formats of the specifiers are used to break up the supplied string into separate arguments, which are then placed in the provided corresponding variable arguments. When reading in string data, note that blank characters are significant and will be retained. To strip trailing blank characters (spaces and tabs) when reading a fixed-length string in a format, supply the length as a negative number.