fprintf

Write data to text file

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Syntax

fprintf(fileID,formatSpec,A1,...,An)
fprintf(formatSpec,A1,...,An)
nbytes = fprintf(___)

Description

fprintf(fileID,formatSpec,A1,...,An) applies the formatSpec to all elements of arrays A1,...An in column order, and writes the data to a text file. fprintf uses the encoding scheme specified in the call to fopen.

example

fprintf(formatSpec,A1,...,An) formats data and displays the results on the screen.

example

nbytes = fprintf(___) returns the number of bytes that fprintf writes, using any of the input arguments in the preceding syntaxes.

example

Examples

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Open Live Script

Print multiple numeric values and literal text to the screen. 

A1 = [9.9, 9900];
A2 = [8.8,  7.7 ; ...
      8800, 7700];
formatSpec = 'X is %4.2f meters or %8.3f mm\n';
fprintf(formatSpec,A1,A2)
X is 9.90 meters or 9900.000 mm
X is 8.80 meters or 8800.000 mm
X is 7.70 meters or 7700.000 mm

%4.2f in the formatSpec input specifies that the first value in each line of output is a floating-point number with a field width of four digits, including two digits after the decimal point. %8.3f in the formatSpec input specifies that the second value in each line of output is a floating-point number with a field width of eight digits, including three digits after the decimal point. \n is a control character that starts a new line.

Open Live Script

Explicitly convert double-precision values with fractions to integer values. 

a = [1.02 3.04 5.06];
fprintf('%d\n',round(a));
1
3
5

%d in the formatSpec input prints each value in the vector, round(a), as a signed integer. \n is a control character that starts a new line.

Write a short table of the exponential function to a text file called exp.txt.

x = 0:.1:1;
A = [x; exp(x)];

fileID = fopen('exp.txt','w');
fprintf(fileID,'%6s %12s\n','x','exp(x)');
fprintf(fileID,'%6.2f %12.8f\n',A);
fclose(fileID);

The first call to fprintf prints header text x and exp(x), and the second call prints the values from variable A.

If you plan to read the file with Microsoft® Notepad, use '\r\n' instead of '\n' to move to a new line. For example, replace the calls to fprintf with the following:

fprintf(fileID,'%6s %12s\r\n','x','exp(x)');
fprintf(fileID,'%6.2f %12.8f\r\n',A);

MATLAB® import functions, all UNIX® applications, and Microsoft Word and WordPad recognize '\n' as a newline indicator.

View the contents of the file with the type command.

type exp.txt
     x       exp(x)
  0.00   1.00000000
  0.10   1.10517092
  0.20   1.22140276
  0.30   1.34985881
  0.40   1.49182470
  0.50   1.64872127
  0.60   1.82211880
  0.70   2.01375271
  0.80   2.22554093
  0.90   2.45960311
  1.00   2.71828183
Open Live Script

Write data to a file and return the number of bytes written.

Write an array of data, A, to a file and get the number of bytes that fprintf writes. 

A = magic(4);

fileID = fopen('myfile.txt','w');
nbytes = fprintf(fileID,'%5d %5d %5d %5d\n',A)
nbytes = 
96

The fprintf function wrote 96 bytes to the file.

Close the file. 

fclose(fileID);

View the contents of the file with the type command. 

type('myfile.txt')
   16     5     9     4
    2    11     7    14
    3    10     6    15
   13     8    12     1

Display a hyperlink (The MathWorks Web Site) on the screen.

url = 'https://www.mathworks.com';
sitename = 'The MathWorks Web Site';

fprintf('<a href = "%s">%s</a>\n',url,sitename)

%s in the formatSpec input indicates that the values of the variables url and sitename, should be printed as text.

Input Arguments

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File identifier, specified as one of the following:

  • A file identifier obtained from fopen. fprintf does not support writing to internet URLs.

  • 1 for standard output (the screen).

  • 2 for standard error.

Data Types: double

Format of the output fields, specified using formatting operators. formatSpec also can include ordinary text and special characters.

If formatSpec includes literal text representing escape characters, such as \n, then fprintf translates the escape characters.

formatSpec can be a character vector in single quotes, or a string scalar.

Formatting Operator

A formatting operator starts with a percent sign, %, and ends with a conversion character. The conversion character is required. Optionally, you can specify identifier, flags, field width, precision, and subtype operators between % and the conversion character. (Spaces are invalid between operators and are shown here only for readability).

Schematic of formatting operator characters.

Conversion Character

This table shows conversion characters to format numeric and character data as text.

Value TypeConversionDetails

Integer, signed

%d or %i

Base 10

Integer, unsigned

%u

Base 10

%o

Base 8 (octal)

%x

Base 16 (hexadecimal), lowercase letters a–f

%X

Same as %x, uppercase letters A–F

Floating-point number

%f

Fixed-point notation (Use a precision operator to specify the number of digits after the decimal point.)

%e

Exponential notation, such as 3.141593e+00 (Use a precision operator to specify the number of digits after the decimal point.)

%E

Same as %e, but uppercase, such as 3.141593E+00 (Use a precision operator to specify the number of digits after the decimal point.)

%g

The more compact of %e or %f, with no trailing zeros (Use a precision operator to specify the number of significant digits.)

%G

The more compact of %E or %f, with no trailing zeros (Use a precision operator to specify the number of significant digits.)

Characters or strings

%c

Single character

%s

Character vector or string array. The type of the output text is the same as the type of formatSpec.

Optional Operators

The optional identifier, flags, field width, precision, and subtype operators further define the format of the output text.

  • Identifier

    Order for processing the function input arguments. Use the syntax n$, where n represents the positions of the other input arguments in the function call.

    Example: ('%3$s %2$s %1$s %2$s','A','B','C') prints input arguments 'A', 'B', 'C' as follows: C B A B.

    Note: If an input argument is an array, you cannot use identifiers to specify particular array elements from that input argument.

  • Flags

    '–'

    Left-justify.
    Example: %-5.2f
    Example: %-10s

    '+'

    Always print a sign character (+ or –) for any numeric value.
    Example: %+5.2f
    Right-justify text.
    Example: %+10s

    ' '

    Insert a space before the value.
    Example: % 5.2f

    '0'

    Pad to field width with zeros before the value.
    Example: %05.2f

    '#'

    Modify selected numeric conversions:

    • For %o, %x, or %X, print 0, 0x, or 0X prefix.

    • For %f, %e, or %E, print decimal point even when precision is 0.

    • For %g or %G, do not remove trailing zeros or decimal point.

    Example: %#5.0f

  • Field Width

    Minimum number of characters to print. The field width operator can be a number, or an asterisk (*) to refer to an input argument.

    When you specify * as the field width operator, the other input arguments must provide both a width and a value to be printed. Widths and values can be pairs of arguments or pairs within a numeric array. With * as the field width operator, you can print different values with different widths.

    Example: The input arguments ('%12d',intmax) are equivalent to ('%*d',12,intmax).

    Example: The input arguments ('%*d',[2 10 5 100]) return '10 100', with two spaces allocated for 10 and five spaces for 100. As an alternative, you also can specify the field widths and values as multiple arguments, as in ('%*d',2,10,5,100).

    The function pads to field width with spaces before the value unless otherwise specified by flags.

  • Precision

    For %f, %e, or %E

    Number of digits to the right of the decimal point
    Example: '%.4f' prints pi as '3.1416'

    For %g or %G

    Number of significant digits
    Example: '%.4g' prints pi as '3.142'

    The precision operator can be a number, or an asterisk (*) to refer to an argument.

    When you specify * as the field precision operator, the other input arguments must provide both a precision and a value to be printed. Precisions and values can be pairs of arguments, or pairs within a numeric array. With * as the precision operator, you can print different values to different precisions.

    When you specify *.* as field width and precision operators, you must specify field widths, precisions, and values as triplets.

    Example: The input arguments ('%.4f',pi) are equivalent to ('%.*f',4,pi).

    Example: The input arguments ('%6.4f',pi) are equivalent to ('%*.*f',6,4,pi).

    Example: The input arguments ('%*.*f',6,4,pi,9,6,exp(1)) return '3.1416 2.718282', with 9 and 6 as the field width and precision for the output of exp(1).

    Note

    If you specify a precision operator for floating-point values that exceeds the precision of the input numeric data type, the results might not match the input values to the precision you specified. The result depends on your computer hardware and operating system.

  • Subtypes

    You can use a subtype operator to print a floating-point value as its octal, decimal, or hexadecimal value. The subtype operator immediately precedes the conversion character. This table shows the conversions that can use subtypes.

    Input Value Type

    Subtype and Conversion Character

    Output Value Type

    Floating-point number

    %bx or %bX
    %bo
    %bu

    Double-precision hexadecimal, octal, or decimal value
    Example: %bx prints pi as 400921fb54442d18

    %tx or %tX
    %to
    %tu

    Single-precision hexadecimal, octal, or decimal value
    Example: %tx prints pi as 40490fdb

Text Before or After Formatting Operators

formatSpec can also include additional text before a percent sign, %, or after a conversion character. The text can be:

  • Ordinary text to print.

  • Special characters that you cannot enter as ordinary text. This table shows how to represent special characters in formatSpec.

    Special Character

    Representation

    Single quotation mark

    ''

    Percent character

    %%

    Backslash

    \\

    Alarm

    \a

    Backspace

    \b

    Form feed

    \f

    New line

    \n

    Carriage return

    \r

    Horizontal tab

    \t

    Vertical tab

    \v

    Character whose Unicode® numeric value can be represented by the hexadecimal number, N

    \xN

    Example: fprintf('\x5A') returns 'Z'

    Character whose Unicode numeric value can be represented by the octal number, N

    \N

    Example: fprintf('\132') returns 'Z'

Notable Behavior of Conversions with Formatting Operators

  • If you specify a conversion that does not fit the data, such as a text conversion for a numeric value, MATLAB overrides the specified conversion, and uses %e.

    Example: '%s' converts pi to 3.141593e+00.

  • If you apply a text conversion (either %c or %s) to integer values, MATLAB converts values that correspond to valid character codes to characters.

    Example: '%s' converts [65 66 67] to ABC.

Numeric or character arrays, specified as a scalar, vector, matrix, or multidimensional array.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64 | logical | char

Output Arguments

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Number of bytes that fprintf writes, returned as a scalar. When writing to a file, nbytes is determined by the character encoding. When printing data to the screen, nbytes is the number of characters displayed on the screen.

Tips

  • Format specifiers for the reading functions sscanf and fscanf differ from the formats for the writing functions sprintf and fprintf. The reading functions do not support a precision field. The width field specifies a minimum for writing, but a maximum for reading.

  • If you specify an invalid formatting operator or special character, then fprintf prints all text up to the invalid operator or character and discards the rest.

    Example: If formatSpec is 'value = %z', then fprintf prints 'value =' because %z is not a formatting operator.

    Example: If formatSpec is 'character \x99999 = %s', then fprintf prints 'character' because \x99999 is not a valid special character.

References

[1] Kernighan, B. W., and D. M. Ritchie, The C Programming Language, Second Edition, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1988.

[2] ANSI specification X3.159-1989: “Programming Language C,” ANSI, 1430 Broadway, New York, NY 10018.

Extended Capabilities

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Version History

Introduced before R2006a

See Also

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