Introduction to MATLAB: As seen in ENGS 20

The disp() command is used to display single variables without the variable name:

>> disp(variable)
>> disp('some string')

Each call to disp() appears on a new line, meaning there is a built-in line break \n.

Here is an example - suppose the following code is stored in a script file scores.m:

% Script file scores.m
% Assumes that test data is available in the array tests
ave = mean(tests);    %compute test average
disp('The average score was:')
disp(ave);

Here is what happens when we execute this script file, for example by typing “scores” at the command prompt:

>> scores

The average score was:
  95

The fprintf() command is similar to its namesake in C and is used for formatted output - either to the screen or to a file. Note that in MATLAB there is no separate printf() command for output to the screen. Both cases - output tot the screen as well as output to a file - use the fprintf() command. Here is the syntax:

>> fprintf(fid, format string, variables)

Just like in C, the format string contains literal text, escape sequences, and format specifiers. We’ll learn details of formatted output in the next section.