printing multiple variables outside of a function

This is the prompt i am given:

1. The cost of sending a package by an express delivery service is $15 for the first two pounds, and $4.25 for each pound over two pounds. Write a program that computes the cost of mailing the packages. Your program must use a function to calculate the cost. Use the test data: 1.5 16 103 lbs The data should be read by the main program from a text file. The data is passed to the function. The results and any other output should be printed by the main program.

The issue i have is printing outside of the function, and in the main program. Heres what i have so far:

Main program:

clc

clear

disp(' name')

disp(' Project 8 problem 1')

ffrd1=fopen('data81.txt','rt');

wei=fscanf(ffrd1,'%f',3);

fclose(ffrd1);

co=cost(wei);

fprintf('%5f',co);

Function:

function [x,y,z]=cost(a)

if a<= 2

x=15;

elseif a<= 100

y=15+4.25*(a-2);

else

z=5; (this was just a test number until i got it working)

end

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Bryan Morrow]

I think i might be on the right track?

function [x,y,z]=cost(a)

for k=1:length(a)

if a(k)<= 2

    x=15;

elseif a(k)<= 100

    y=15+4.25*(a-2);

else

    z=5;

end

end

[Jan]

Please format your code properly. Use the "{} Code" button.

Do not forget to explain, which problems the shown code has. The less the readers have to guess, the more likely is a useful answer.

[Bryan Morrow]

ok i think i may have gotten it. i just need to take care of the anesthetics of it. Thank you very much.

Answer 1

[Jan]

You are almost ready. The only problem I see is, that the function cost() should not return 3 outputs, but a vectzor of the same size as the input. Then the simple if branches cannot work, because if needs a scalar argument. So either insert a for loop over all elements of the input, or use a so called vectorized method. I recommend to start with the loop at first.

The output should be printed with a separator, so append a '\n' to the format string of fprintf.