🚀⚡Beginner

Multiply Two Floating-Point Numbers

Multiply two decimal numbers

This program multiplies two floating-point numbers (decimal numbers). It demonstrates working with the float data type and the %f format specifier.

📚 What You Will Learn

•Using float data type for decimal numbers
•Format specifier %f for floating-point
•Controlling decimal places with %.2f

C Program to Multiply Two Floating-Point Numbers

multiply_floats.c

1#include <stdio.h>
2
3int main() {
4    // Declare floating-point variables
5    float num1, num2, product;
6    
7    // Get first number
8    printf("Enter first number: ");
9    scanf("%f", &num1);
10    
11    // Get second number
12    printf("Enter second number: ");
13    scanf("%f", &num2);
14    
15    // Calculate product
16    product = num1 * num2;
17    
18    // Display result with 2 decimal places
19    printf("%.2f × %.2f = %.2f\n", num1, num2, product);
20    
21    return 0;
22}

Output

Enter first number: 3.5

Enter second number: 2.4

3.50 × 2.40 = 8.40

Detailed Code Explanation

Line 4float num1, num2, product;

float is used for decimal numbers with ~7 digits of precision.

Type	Size	Precision	Range
float	4 bytes	~7 digits	±3.4×10³⁸
double	8 bytes	~15 digits	±1.7×10³⁰⁸

Line 18printf("%.2f", product);

.2 controls decimal places. Without it, %f shows 6 decimal places by default.

Format Specifiers for Floating-Point

Specifier	Example	Output
%f	printf("%f", 3.14159);	3.141590 (default 6 decimals)
%.2f	printf("%.2f", 3.14159);	3.14 (2 decimal places)
%.0f	printf("%.0f", 3.14159);	3 (no decimals, rounded)
%10.2f	printf("%10.2f", 3.14);	3.14 (width 10, right-aligned)
%e	printf("%e", 314159.0);	3.141590e+05 (scientific notation)