printf method in Java is implemented and available with the Formatter class.
public PrintStream printf(String format, Object... args)
allows you to print an arbitrary number of objects. It can be called like this:
System.out.printf("%s: %d, %s%n", name, idnum, address);
or like this
System.out.printf("%s: %d, %s, %s, %s%n", name, idnum, address, phone, email);
or with yet a different number of arguments.