display - Display text or array (overloaded method)

Syntax

Description

display(X) prints the value of a variable or expression, X. The MATLAB software calls display(X) when it interprets a variable or expression, X, that is not terminated by a semicolon. For example, sin(A) calls display, while sin(A); does not.

If X is an instance of a MATLAB class, then MATLAB calls the display method of that class, if such a method exists. If the class has no display method or if X is not an instance of a MATLAB class, then the MATLAB built-in display function is called.

Examples

A typical implementation of display calls disp to do most of the work and looks like this.

function display(X)
if isequal(get(0,'FormatSpacing'),'compact')
   disp([inputname(1) ' =']);
   disp(X)
else
   disp(' ')
   disp([inputname(1) ' =']);
   disp(' ');
   disp(X)
end

The expression magic(3), with no terminating semicolon, calls this function as display(magic(3)).

magic(3)

ans =

     8     1     6
     3     5     7
     4     9     2

As an example of a class display method, the function below implements the display method for objects of the MATLAB class polynom.

function display(p)
% POLYNOM/DISPLAY Command window display of a polynom
disp(' ');
disp([inputname(1),' = '])
disp(' ');
disp(['   ' char(p)])
disp(' ');

The statement

p = polynom([1 0 -2 -5])

creates a polynom object. Since the statement is not terminated with a semicolon, the MATLAB interpreter calls display(p), resulting in the output

p =

    x^3 - 2*x - 5

See Also

ans | disp | special characters | sprintf

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