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Comment by dimitar | Hacker News Reader

Can you give an example? I can't speak for all possible lisps but Common Lisp and clojure have great string built-ins:

printf("x = %6d\ny = %.8E\n", x, y) ;

What's the equivalent lisp?

(format t "x = ~6d~%y = ~.8E~%" x y)

The "format string" capabilities of common lisp are quite advanced. https://gigamonkeys.com/book/a-few-format-recipes is a fun overview.

An inelegant weapon, for a less civilized age. And yet, it works.

You seriously thought that lisps had no printf equivalent ?!

People still think that Lisps only offer lists for data structures, which hasn't been true since at least 1960.

Someone else has given you the Common Lisp version. Here's one for Clojure:

  (printf "x = %6d\ny = %.8E\n" x y)

If I've understood everything right, and your example is in C, the format string in Clojure is identical to the one in your comment.