Splunk Core Certified Advanced Power User Practice Test

The %x specifier in the printf function is utilized to format an unsigned integer as a hexadecimal number. This means it will represent the number in base 16, where the digits 0-9 represent their usual values and the letters a-f represent the values 10-15.

Using %x results in the output being displayed in lower-case letters for any digits beyond 9, which is a standard representation in programming as it provides a concise way of expressing values that are typically larger than those displayed in decimal format.

This formatting is particularly useful in contexts such as debugging, where seeing raw memory addresses or other types of data represented in hexadecimal can provide clearer insight into data structures or algorithm efficiency. For instance, if you were to pass in the number 255, the output would be ff, which is the hexadecimal representation of that decimal value.

The other choices involve different types of data formats that the % character in printf handles, such as representing integers in decimal, floating-point numbers, or strings, but do not pertain to the hexadecimal representation specifically addressed by %x.