Printf function returns "Number Of successful characters printed by printf function which includes white space ".
For eg:
a=printf("hi");
Obviously the printf function will print "hi".It prints two characters in console. So the printf function will return value 2.
int main()
{
int a=printf("selva");
printf("%d",a);
return 0;
}
selva 5
In the above program "selva" is printed in the console. The printf returns 5 to a.