How to format float data type while inputting and outputting and what exactly does "%x.yf" mean ?

Question

I have seen the float being formatted as 5.2f, 3.2f etc. What exactly do these mean? How the storing/printing is affected by this?

Edit: How are "%5.2" and "%3.2f" different? When to use which?

Answer 1

In outputting a float, x means the minimum number of characters that will be printed. The y is the precision, it is the number of digits to be printed after decimal point.
It's slighty different in input format
You can refer to http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/cstdio/scanf for input format and http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/cstdio/printf for the output

Answer 2

There isn't like meaning or something. It's just that f helps it to be distinct from a double.

Answer 3

What?