[Serial]
Description
Prints data to the serial port as human-readable ASCII text. This command can take many forms. Numbers are printed using an ASCII character for each digit. Floats are similarly printed as ASCII digits, defaulting to two decimal places. Bytes are sent as a single character. Characters and strings are sent as is. For example:
Serial.print(78)
gives “78”Serial.print(1.23456)
gives “1.23”Serial.print('N')
gives “N”Serial.print("Hello world.")
gives “Hello world.”
An optional second parameter specifies the base (format) to use; permitted values are BIN
(binary, or base 2), OCT
(octal, or base 8), DEC
(decimal, or base 10), HEX
(hexadecimal, or base 16). For floating point numbers, this parameter specifies the number of decimal places to use. For example:
Serial.print(78, BIN)
gives “1001110”Serial.print(78, OCT)
gives “116”Serial.print(78, DEC)
gives “78”Serial.print(78, HEX)
gives “4E”Serial.println(1.23456, 0)
gives “1”Serial.println(1.23456, 2)
gives “1.23”Serial.println(1.23456, 4)
gives “1.2346”
To send a single byte, use Serial.write().
Syntax
Serial.print(val)
Serial.print(val, format)
Parameters
val
: the value to print – any data typeformat
: specifies the number base (for integral data types) or number of decimal places (for floating point types)
Returns
size_t (long): print()
returns the number of bytes written, though reading that number is optional
Example
/* Uses a FOR loop for data and prints a number in various formats. */ int x = 0; // variable void setup() { Serial.begin(9600); // open the serial port at 9600 bps: } void loop() { // print labels Serial.print("NO FORMAT"); // prints a label Serial.print("\t"); // prints a tab Serial.print("DEC"); Serial.print("\t"); Serial.print("HEX"); Serial.print("\t"); Serial.print("OCT"); Serial.print("\t"); Serial.print("BIN"); Serial.print("\t"); for(x=0; x< 64; x++){ // only part of the ASCII chart, change to suit // print it out in many formats: Serial.print(x); // print as an ASCII-encoded decimal - same as "DEC" Serial.print("\t"); // prints a tab Serial.print(x, DEC); // print as an ASCII-encoded decimal Serial.print("\t"); // prints a tab Serial.print(x, HEX); // print as an ASCII-encoded hexadecimal Serial.print("\t"); // prints a tab Serial.print(x, OCT); // print as an ASCII-encoded octal Serial.print("\t"); // prints a tab Serial.println(x, BIN); // print as an ASCII-encoded binary // then adds the carriage return with "println" delay(200); // delay 200 milliseconds } Serial.println(""); // prints another carriage return }
Programming Tips
Serial transmission is asynchronous; Serial.print()
will return before any characters are transmitted.
See also
- if (Serial)
- available()
- begin()
- end()
- find()
- findUntil()
- flush()
- parseFloat()
- parseInt()
- peek()
- println()
- read()
- readBytes()
- readBytesUntil()
- setTimeout()
- write()
- serialEvent()
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The text of the 86Duino reference is a modification of the Arduino reference and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. Code samples in the reference are released into the public domain.