diff --git a/src/xspice/cmpp/writ_ifs.c b/src/xspice/cmpp/writ_ifs.c
index e1ab2d5e6..705228bc1 100644
--- a/src/xspice/cmpp/writ_ifs.c
+++ b/src/xspice/cmpp/writ_ifs.c
@@ -1220,11 +1220,11 @@ static char  *value_to_str(Data_Type_t type, Value_t value)
             /* be careful, the string could conceivably be very long... */
             str_len = (int) strlen(value.svalue);
             if ((str_len + BASE_STR_LEN) > max_len) {
-                size_t n_byte_alloc = max_len + str_len + 1;
+                int n_byte_alloc = max_len + str_len + 1;
                 void * const p = realloc(str, n_byte_alloc);
                 if (p == NULL) {
-                    (void) fprintf(stderr, "Unable to resize string "
-                            "buffer to size %zu.\n",
+                    (void) fprintf(stderr,
+                            "Unable to resize string buffer to size %d.\n",
                             n_byte_alloc);
                     free(str);
                     return (char *) NULL;