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Converting Values To Ascii Using C Language Formatting
Syntax sprintf(format string, A, B, ...)
See Also fprintf , ntoa , format , print , write

Description
Returns a character row vector that contains an ASCII representation of the list of values A, B, ... This function is very similar to the sprintf function in the C compute language (see page 154 of The C programming Language by B.W. Kernighan and D.M. Ritchie). It allows for multiple format specifications to be used when creating a single ASCII string. (The ntoa function is simpler but it only uses one format specification to create a character matrix.)

The argument format string specifies the manner in which the values in the list A, B, ... are converted to a sequence of ascii characters. Characters that are not part of a conversion specification are copied directly to the output string with the following C language style escaping of special characters:
Escape Sequence Resulting Output character
%% single percent sign
\\ single backslash
\n new line
\ooo octal ascii code is ooo
\xhh hexadecimal ascii code is hh

Conversion Specification
If the pair of characters %% appears in format string they are copied to the output string as a single % (see %% escape sequence above). Otherwise the character % denotes the beginning of a format conversion specification. A format conversion specification has the following form:
     percent sign width dot precision type
The following table describes each of the components in the form above:
Symbol Characters Optional
precent % no
sign - yes
width * or a number yes
dot . yes
precision * or a number yes
type dioxXucsfeEgG no
The following table describes each of the format types in the table above. In this table, the column labeled precision specifies if the specific format type allows for a dot and precision field:
Type Precision Description
d no integer to decimal
i no integer to decimal
o no positive integer to octal
u no positive integer to decimal
x no integer to lower case hex
X no integer to upper case hex
c no from and to ASCII character
s yes from and to vector of ASCII characters
f yes floating point to fixed point
e yes floating point to e scientific notation
E yes floating point to E scientific notation
g yes combination of f and e formats
G yes combination of f and E formats
Order Of Conversion
The list of matrices A, B, ... are converted in order. Within each matrix, its elements are converted in column major order . If a conversion specification has no * characters in it, it corresponds to one element. If it has one * character, the specification corresponds to two elements with the first corresponding to the *. If it has two * characters, the specification corresponds to three elements with the first two corresponding to the * characters.

Example

Integer Formatting
If you enter
     s = sprintf("%d", -10)
     print type(s), s
 O-Matrix will respond
     char -10
 If you enter
     sprintf(":%5i:", -10)
 O-Matrix will respond
     :  -10:
 If you enter
     sprintf(":%-5o:%-5u:", 10, 10)
 O-Matrix will respond
     :12   :10   :
 If you enter
     sprintf(":%5x:%5X:%05X:", 10, 10, 10)
 O-Matrix will respond
     :    a:    A:0000A:
 If you enter
     sprintf(":%-5o:", 10)
 O-Matrix will respond
     :12   :
Floating Point Formatting
The default precision is size places. If you enter
     sprintf(":%f:%.6f:", 1.0, 2.0)
 O-Matrix will respond
     :1.000000:2.000000:
 If you enter
     sprintf(":%10f:%-10.6f:", 1.0, 2.0)
 O-Matrix will respond
     :  1.000000:2.000000  :
 If you enter
     sprintf(":%e:%.6E:", 1.0, 2.0)
 O-Matrix will respond
     :1.000000e+000:2.000000E+000:
     sprintf(":%15e:%-15.6E:", 1.0, 2.0)
 O-Matrix will respond
     :  1.000000e+000:2.000000E+000  :
 The g and G formats only display the number of digits necessary to get the requested precision. If you enter
     sprintf(":%g:%.6G:", pi, 2.0)
 O-Matrix will respond
     :3.14159:2:
 If you enter
     sprintf(":%g:%.6G:", 1e+10, 2e+20)
 O-Matrix will respond
     :1e+010:2e+020:
String Formation
The c format type can be used to convert a single value using its corresponding ASCII code. If you enter
     sprintf("%c, %d, %e", "ABC")
 O-Matrix will respond
     A, 66, 6.700000e+001
 The s format can be used to convert an entire matrix using the corresponding ascii codes. If you enter
     sprintf(":%s:%s:", "ABC", [65, 66, 67])
 O-Matrix will respond
     :ABC:ABC:
 If you enter
     sprintf(":%10c:%10s:", "A", "ABC")
 O-Matrix will respond
     :         A:       ABC:
 If you enter
     sprintf(":%-10c:%-10s:", "A", "ABC")
 O-Matrix will respond
     :A         :ABC       :
 If you enter
     sprintf(":%10.2s:%-10.2s:", "ABC", "ABC")
 O-Matrix will respond
     :        AB:AB        :
The Star Conversion Character
The * character is used to specify the value for width or precision when they depends on some other value. If you enter
     sprintf(":%*d:", 5, 1)
 O-Matrix will respond
     :    1:
 If you enter
     sprintf(":%*.*f:", [10, 2, pi])
 O-Matrix will respond
     :      3.14:
Mlmode
In Mlmode , the function fprintf acts the same as sprintf with the exception that the result is printed to the command window instead of returned as the function value. If in Mlmode you enter
     x = 1;
     y = 2;
     fprintf('one = %g\ntwo = %g\n', x, y);
 O-Matrix will respond
     one = 1
     two = 2