Formatting output with printf

Hi all,

If I create a variable as a float type and then print this number out to the screen with anything other than a %f format, such as %d, I get a *seemingly* random number.

Is C doing some calculation against my initial float type to try and turn it into a %d output?

Example:

Code:

---

int    main()
{
    float      data;
    printf("Number: ",stdout);
    scanf("%f", &data);
    printf("Output in decimal format: %d", data);
    return EX_OK;
}

---

The code above results in an input of 10 displaying as "1076101120". I understand that I need to use %f, but would like to know how the printf comes to output the long string of "1076101120"

printf merely grabs the bits of whatever you might have passed in and interprets the data in whatever format you have specified. The bits in the float just happens to be the number you see when interpreted as an integer.