University of Central Florida (UCF) EGN3211 Engineering Analysis and Computation Final Practice Exam

The primary purpose of the 'printf' function in C programs is to output formatted text to the console. When invoked, 'printf' takes a format string that specifies how the subsequent arguments should be interpreted and displayed. This can include characters, numbers, and other data types formatted in various ways, allowing the programmer to control the appearance of the output.

Using 'printf' is essential for debugging and providing feedback to the user, such as displaying results of computations or program status. This function plays a crucial role in any C program that requires interaction with the user or needs to report data execution.

In this context, while declaring variables, defining functions, and returning values from functions are important programming tasks, they do not involve outputting data to the console, which is the specific capability that 'printf' provides. Therefore, the correct answer identifies the function's role in producing output.