Output of changing number of columns

Dear all, I'm running Matlab 2011a,

Here's the situation: I'm using the fprintf function to output the mat.structure into a file. I'm normally using something like

fprintf(out, '%14f %14f %14f %14f', array); this is true for 4 column format,

However in my "mat.structure(i)", the number of columns is changing with (i).

QUESTION: How can I specify a CHANGING format using fprintf? Is there a better function to suite my needs?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

[Niels]

I believe a simple repmat should do the trick:

fprintf(out, repmat('%14f ',[1,size(array,2)]), array);

[Vlad Kaminski]

Thank you! This worked

Answer 2

[Stephen23]

Here are two ways that you can allow for a variable number of columns and also not introduce an extra space character before/after the text:

1. use repmat on the format string, and then shorten it:

>> A = 1:3;
>> fmt = repmat(' %2f',1,size(A,2));
>> fprintf(fmt(2:end),A)
1.000000 2.000000 3.000000>>

2. use two fprintf calls (if more than one column):

>> fprintf('%2f',A(1)), fprintf(' %2f',A(2:end))
1.000000 2.000000 3.000000>>

A naive repmat on the format string will produce a leading/trailing space character.