Arizona State University (ASU) CSE110 Principles of Programming Exam 1 Practice

The correct choice effectively formats the output of the variable `price` to display it as a floating-point number with two decimal places, ensuring that it appears in the required format of "20.00".

When using `System.out.printf`, the format specifier `"%10.2f"` indicates that the output should be a floating-point number (`f`) with a total width of 10 characters, including 2 decimal places. This means it will display the number with two digits after the decimal point, padded with spaces if necessary to reach the total width of 10. As a result, if `price` is assigned the value `20.00`, it would be displayed as " 20.00", centered in a field of 10 characters.

Additionally, the use of the format specifier ensures that the output will be consistent and properly formatted, making the code robust for any floating-point value assigned to `price`. This is particularly useful in situations where alignment of numerical output in reports or logs is important.

Other choices vary in their formatting specifiers, which would not necessarily produce the correct output:

- The first choice simply attempts to print the variable directly without specifying how to format it, which would likely lead to an error unless `