Ability to break long fprintf statements

Problem:
A student sent me an email – ” I can’t figure out how to continue my text on another line in the editor while using the fprintf command in MATLAB.  It seems like this should be something simple, but I can’t figure it out.  The closest thing I have tried is:
fprintf(‘filler filler filler’, …
‘filler filler’)

When I run this script, this only displays the content within the first set of quotes though.

Solution:
Assign the long strings to variables, and then use the fprintf statements

abc=’My name is’
def=’ Slim Shady, also known as Marshall Mathers’
fprintf([abc def])

or you could do the following, especially if you have other non-string variables to print

abc=’My name is’
def=’ Slim Shady, also known as Marshall Mathers’
fprintf(‘%s %s’,abc,def)

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This post is brought to you by

How do I display the data of an array in MATLAB?

When I give a MATLAB project, I ask my students that the command window can only show output from disp and frprintf statements.  All other statement outputs need to be suppressed.  This is done to get an aesthetically pleasing report.  So what is a student supposed to do when you may have y vs x data and one needs to show it as an output, especially when the number of y vs x data points can change.

For example, we may have

x=[1  4  5   7 ]

y=[12  23  34  100]

How do I display this with just disp and fprintf statements?

  • The MATLAB program link is here.
  • The Hhttp://nm.mathforcollege.com/blog/displaying_arrays.mTML version of the MATLAB program is here.
  • DO NOT COPY AND PASTE THE PROGRAM BELOW BECAUSE THE SINGLE QUOTES DO NOT TRANSLATE TO THE CORRECT SINGLE QUOTES IN MATLAB EDITOR.  DOWNLOAD THE MATLAB PROGRAM INSTEAD

%% HOW DO I DO THAT IN MATLAB SERIES?
% In this series, I am answering questions that students have asked
% me about MATLAB.  Most of the questions relate to a mathematical
% procedure.

%% TOPIC
% How do I display arrays in MATLAB?

%% SUMMARY

% Language : Matlab 2008a;
% Authors : Autar Kaw and Jeremy Baker;
% Mfile available at
% http://nm.mathforcollege.com/blog/displaying_arrays.m;
% Last Revised : July 8, 2009;
% Abstract: This program shows you how to display arrays in MATLAB
clc
clear all

%% INTRODUCTION

disp(‘ABSTRACT’)
disp(‘   This program shows you how to display arrays’)
disp(‘ ‘)
disp(‘AUTHOR’)
disp(‘   Autar K Kaw of http://autarkaw.wordpress.com and Jeremy Baker’)
disp(‘ ‘)
disp(‘MFILE SOURCE’)
disp(‘   http://nm.mathforcollege.com/blog/displaying_arrays.m’)
disp(‘ ‘)
disp(‘LAST REVISED’)
disp(‘   July 8, 2009’)
disp(‘ ‘)

%% INPUTS
% Input x and y arrays, for example as y vs x data
x=[1  4  5   7 ];
y=[12  23  34  100];
%% DISPLAYING INPUTS METHOD 1
disp(‘INPUTS – Method 1’)
n=length(x);
fprintf(‘The number of data points is %g \n’,n)
disp(‘________________________’)
disp(‘  x-values    y values  ‘)
disp(‘________________________’)
for i=1:1:n
fprintf(‘      %g          %g \n’,x(i), y(i)’)
end
disp(‘________________________’)

%% DISPLAYING INPUTS METHOD 2
% Suggested by guest blogger Jeremy Baker
disp(‘  ‘)
disp(‘INPUTS – Method 2’)
n=length(x);
fprintf(‘The number of data points is %g \n’,n)
disp(‘________________________’)
disp(‘     x    y  ‘)
disp(‘________________________’)
dataval=[x;y]’;
disp(dataval)
disp(‘________________________’)

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This post is brought to you by Holistic Numerical Methods: Numerical Methods for the STEM undergraduate at http://nm.mathforcollege.com, the textbook on Numerical Methods with Applications available from the lulu storefront, and the YouTube video lectures available at http://nm.mathforcollege.com/videos and http://www.youtube.com/numericalmethodsguy

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