Why use console.printf instead of System.out.println? or will that be discussed later?

System.out.println is able to print using variable substitution, but by using printf you can simplify mixing variables with text. For example, instead of System.out.println("Hello, my name is " + yourName + " and I am " + age + " years old.), I can instead use printf and say console.printf("Hello, my name is %s and I am %i years old.", yourName, age);. When using several variables in your output, it can be beneficial to use printf. You can also use this to format the output of the variables, such as converting numbers to dollar amounts.

Hope this helps.

Zac

https://teamtreehouse.com/community/what-is-the-difference-between-systemoutprint-and-consoleprintf or https://teamtreehouse.com/community/what-is-the-different-between-using-console-vs-systemout

Printf makes it shorter AND easier to use variables in your output.

It also is useful for if you want to print x, where x = 0.50 instead of 0.5000001;

double x = 0.5000001;

Good point, and I'm not sure the answer to that. Ultimately it comes down to making the I/O of System easier to access. One of the videos mentions that Console is a wrapper class.

printf is available for both System.out and Console. I suppose it comes down to preference. :-)