This article summarizes the format specifiers supported by string formatting methods and functions. Format Specifiers The format specifiers supported by the NSString formatting methods and CFString formatting functions follow the IEEE printf specification ; the specifiers are summarized in Table 1 . Note that you can also use the “ n$ ” positional specifiers such as %1$@ %2$s . For more details, see the IEEE printf specification . You can also use these format specifiers with the NSLog function. Table 1 Format specifiers supported by the NSString formatting methods and CFString formatting functions Specifier Description %@ Objective-C object, printed as the string returned by descriptionWithLocale: if available, or description otherwise. Also works with CFTypeRef objects, returning the result of the CFCopyDescription function. %% '%' character. %d ,...