Significado de '%s' en una consulta?

[spider_boy]

Tomado de PHP, de la función sprintf:

#

A type specifier that says what type the argument data should be treated as. Possible types:

* % - a literal percent character. No argument is required.
* b - the argument is treated as an integer, and presented as a binary number.
* c - the argument is treated as an integer, and presented as the character with that ASCII value.
* d - the argument is treated as an integer, and presented as a (signed) decimal number.
* e - the argument is treated as scientific notation (e.g. 1.2e+2). The precision specifier stands for the number of digits after the decimal point since PHP 5.2.1. In earlier versions, it was taken as number of significant digits (one less).
* E - like %e but uses uppercase letter (e.g. 1.2E+2).
* u - the argument is treated as an integer, and presented as an unsigned decimal number.
* f - the argument is treated as a float, and presented as a floating-point number (locale aware).
* F - the argument is treated as a float, and presented as a floating-point number (non-locale aware). Available since PHP 4.3.10 and PHP 5.0.3.
* g - shorter of %e and %f.
* G - shorter of %E and %f.
* o - the argument is treated as an integer, and presented as an octal number.
* s - the argument is treated as and presented as a string.
* x - the argument is treated as an integer and presented as a hexadecimal number (with lowercase letters).
* X - the argument is treated as an integer and presented as a hexadecimal number (with uppercase letters).