sprintf

after years of max i am still annoyed about the lack of some sprintf overview.
whenever i use it, the object looks on me with its big green eyes and whispers
"ssht ssht, i have some secrets left, but to unlock them you must be a C++
guy" which i am not.

what kind of specifiers does it take and how do they have to be arranged?
what (maxmsp-)types can it convert to others?

i mainly use string, decimal, decimal float, or concrete symbols (such as adding
spaces or appending an extension) but there are probably some more, right?

-110