fprintf automatic spacing for strings of different lenghts

Hi,

how do i evenly space if I print this text using fprintf, in the example 1 below is what I get but I would like to output in the format of example 2, is there a way to automate the spacing if we the consecutive places and I have a string(name of place n) of different lenghts?

where cities is an array of strings show in the examples below and paths is a vector

for i = 1:(length(path)-1)

fprintf('%s --> %s (Distance = %s km)\n', cities(path(i)), cities(path(i+1)), num2str(matDist(min(... [path(i) path(i+1)]), max([path(i) path(i+1)]))));

end

fprintf('%s --> %s (Distance = %s km)\n', cities(path(end)), cities(path(1)), num2str(matDist(min(... [path(1) path(end)]), max([path(1) path(end)]))));

Example 1

Path and distance

----------------------------------------

Case fileName | Origin = Vila Ló(city 1)

----------------------------------------

Total Distance = 414 km

Vila Ló --> Pião (Distance = 46 km)

Pião --> Chão de Frades (Distance = 73 km)

Chão de Frades --> Salmorrete (Distance = 205 km)

Salmorrete --> Tortolindo (Distance = 33 km)

Tortolindo--> Vila Ló (Distance = 57 km)

Example 2

Path and distance

----------------------------------------

Case fileName | Origin = Vila Ló(place 1)

----------------------------------------

Total Distance = 414 km

Vila Ló --> Pião (Distance = 46 km)

Pião --> Chão de Frades (Distance = 73 km)

Chão de Frades --> Salmorrete (Distance = 205 km)

Salmorrete --> Tortolindo (Distance = 33 km)

Tortolindo --> Vila Ló (Distance = 57 km)

[Dyuman Joshi]

Vectorized version -

%Sample data
cities1 = ["Vila Ló", "Pião", "Chão de Frades", "Salmorrete", "Tortolindo"];
cities2 = cities1([2 3 4 5 1]);
distance = [46 73 205 33 57];

%Convert the distance to strings with the desired precision
distance = compose("%d", distance);

n = repelem(max(strlength(cities1)),1,numel(cities1));
%If you need to add more spaces in between, modify n accordingly
%For e.g
%n = n+5;

fprintf('%-*s --> %-*s (Distance = %s km)\n', [n;cities1;n;cities2;distance])

Vila Ló        --> Pião           (Distance = 46 km)
Pião           --> Chão de Frades (Distance = 73 km)
Chão de Frades --> Salmorrete     (Distance = 205 km)
Salmorrete     --> Tortolindo     (Distance = 33 km)
Tortolindo     --> Vila Ló        (Distance = 57 km)

[Alexandre]

Thank you!

Answer 1

[Voss]

cities = ["Pasadena","Urbana-Champaign","Cambridge"];
path = 1:numel(cities);
d = [3200 1600 4800]; % using a vector of distances since I don't have your function matDist()

n = max(strlength(cities));

for i = 1:(length(path)-1)
    fprintf('%-*s --> %-*s (Distance = %.f km)\n', n, cities(path(i)), n, cities(path(i+1)), d(i));
end

Pasadena         --> Urbana-Champaign (Distance = 3200 km)
Urbana-Champaign --> Cambridge        (Distance = 1600 km)

fprintf('%-*s --> %-*s (Distance = %.f km)\n', n, cities(path(end)), n, cities(path(1)), d(end));

Cambridge        --> Pasadena         (Distance = 4800 km)

[Alexandre]

Thank you!

[Voss]

You're welcome!

[Walter Roberson]

Using the %* facility is a bit obscure, but should work fine for this purpose.

Answer 2

[Florian Bidaud]

Something like this should do

cities = ["Vila Lo" "Piao" "Chao de Frades" "Salmorrete" "Tortolindo"];
path = [1 2 3 4 5];
distance = [46 73 205 3357]; % Should be replaced by your function matDist

max_city_len = max(strlength(cities));

for i = 1:(length(path)-1)
    fprintf('%s %s --> %s %s (Distance = %s km)\n', cities(path(i)),repmat(' ',1,max_city_len-strlength(cities(path(i)))+1), repmat(' ',1,max_city_len-strlength(cities(path(i+1)))+1), cities(path(i+1)), num2str(distance(i)));
end

Vila Lo          -->             Piao (Distance = 46 km)
Piao             -->   Chao de Frades (Distance = 73 km)
Chao de Frades   -->       Salmorrete (Distance = 205 km)
Salmorrete       -->       Tortolindo (Distance = 3357 km)

fprintf('%s %s --> %s %s (Distance = %s km)\n', cities(path(end)), repmat(' ',1,max_city_len-strlength(cities(path(end)))+1), repmat(' ',1,max_city_len-strlength(cities(path(1)))+1), cities(path(1)), num2str(distance(end)));

Tortolindo       -->          Vila Lo (Distance = 3357 km)

[Alexandre]

Thank you!