What is the difference between printf and sprintf when truncating floating point numbers in PHP?

When truncating floating point numbers in PHP, the main difference between printf and sprintf is that printf outputs the formatted string directly to the output, while sprintf returns the formatted string without outputting it. If you want to truncate a floating point number and store the result in a variable, you should use sprintf. If you want to directly output the truncated number, you should use printf.

// Using sprintf to truncate a floating point number and store the result in a variable
$number = 12.3456;
$truncatedNumber = sprintf("%.2f", $number);
echo $truncatedNumber; // Output: 12.34

// Using printf to directly output the truncated number
$number = 12.3456;
printf("%.2f", $number); // Output: 12.34