fprintf from a switch/case?

Hello, so I'm doing a problem for an assignment and I was wondering if someone would be able to help me.

The problem is 8.16

So far I have

major = menu('Select an engineering major: ','Civil','Chemical','Computer','Electrical','Mechanical')

switch major

    case 1
        disp('130');
    case 2
        disp('130');
    case 3
        disp('122');
    case 4
        disp('126.5');

    case 5
        disp('129');
end
fprintf('The minimum number of credits is: %3.1f \n', major)

But I want the number in the disp() to show in my fprintf, not the case number.

Answer 1

[Henrik]

This is not the most sophisticated solution, but it works..

switch major
  case 1
      text_to_print='130';
  case 2
      text_to_print='130';
  case 3
      text_to_print='122';
  case 4
      text_to_print='126.5';
  case 5
      text_to_print='129';
end
fprintf(['The minimum number of credits is: ' text_to_print '\n'])

[Alyssa]

It does, thank you!

I am still new at this but I understand what you did and it makes sense. I never thought to break it up like you did, thank you

[Henrik]

You are welcome :)

[Henrik]

By the way, switch can also work with text, here's a simple example:

test_string='horse';
switch test_string
    case 'horse'
    disp('This is a horse')
end

You might be able to do something like

switch major
case 'Civil'
  text_to_print='130'

etc. Just a thought.

Or maybe

switch major
case 'Civil'
  credits=130;

etc

fprintf(['The minimum number of credits is: ' num2str(credits) '\n'])

[per isakson]

This line

    fprintf(['The minimum number of credits is: ' num2str(credits) '\n'])

may be replaced by

    fprintf( 'The minimum number of credits is: %.1f\n' credits )

Answer 2

[Stephen23]

The following code does much the same as Henrik's answer, but it also:

• returns the name of the major as well as the credit value.
• uses the major's name in the switch statement, which makes it clearer which credits belong to what major.
• uses an fprintf number format that only displays the decimal fraction if it is not zero.

AllMaj = {'Civil','Chemical','Computer','Electrical','Mechanical'};
major = AllMaj{menu('Select an engineering major: ',AllMaj{:})};
switch lower(major)
    case 'civil'
        pts = 130;
    case 'chemical'
        pts = 130;
    case 'computer'
        pts = 122;
    case 'electrical'
        pts = 126.5;
    case 'mechanical'
        pts = 129;
end
fprintf('The minimum number of credits for %s Engineering is: %.4g\n',major,pts)

Although the assignment clearly states this prerequisite, using switch is a little heavy handed, and using an array instead would probably be a lot simpler and tidier.