what's difference between scan and sscanf

[sean_tan]

when get result from instrument,I find RS give us two function,

 one:

  if ((status  = viRead (instrSession, buf, 50, &retCnt)) < 0)
         return status;
     if (Scan(buf, "%s>f%",MaxBurstPower) != 1)
         return  MB8820B_status; 

   return MB8820B_status; 
       
}

Two:
  if (strcmp (rdBuf, "NAN") != 0)
    sscanf (rdBuf, "%lf", MaxBurstPower);
anyone can tell me the difference between them,if use scan() get result from instrument,the up way is right?

[RobertoBozzolo · Accepted solution]

Scan and sscanf are very similar in usage (infact most of the formatting string can be passed from one instruction to the other). The main difference is that Scan comes form a proprietary library from NI, so that if you want to write code portable across multiple compilers you should not use it. I find Scan more powerful in some particular occasions, for example when scanning with fixed number of bytes per digit and so on. The same facilities in my opinion can be obtained with sscanf in more difficult way.

[sean_tan]

thanks Robert.