how to format a column of numbers into strings for ticklabel use?

I have a column of longitude values for the xtick of my plot:

xt = xticks(gca);

The numbers of xt can be -120, -110, -100, etc. I want to convert them to xt2: '120\circW', '110\circW', '100\circW', and then change the current xticklabel with these new labels, by using:

set(gca,'xtickLabel',xt2);

I know for an individual one, it can be done by:

xt2(i) = [num2str(xt(i)), '\circW'];

Is it possible to write a format change script without creating a loop?

Many thanks!

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

Use the compose (or sprintfc) function to create a cell array:

x = linspace(20, 50, 29);
y = sin((x-20)/30 * 2 * pi);

figure
plot(x, y)
xt = xticks(gca);
xt2 = compose('%.0f\\circW',xt);
set(gca,'xtickLabel',xt2);

producing:

The compose function was introduced in R2016b.

The sprintfc funciton is undocumented. (Everyone has it.) The arguments are the same as for compose, so only the function name needs to change.