Write a matrix of strings to text file:

Hi, I have the following problem. I have to write a kind of header to text file. I tried to create a matrix (rather I should say an array) but when I tried to write I get error "Error using fprintf Function is not defined for 'cell' inputs." Here is the code:

{
vect_signals={'T' '211A015' '211B035' '211A101' '211B111' '211N401' '211D411' '21411A151' '21411K152' '21411Q501_2'...
    '21411Q503_2' '21411Q505_2' '21411Q507_2' '21411Q509_2' '21411Q511_2' '22411Q151' '22411Q152' '22411Q501_2'...
    '22411Q503_2' '22411Q505_2' '22411Q507_2' '22411Q509_2' '22411Q511}
vect_zeros=zeros(length(vect_signals),1);
vect_Val_zeros=num2str(vect_zeros); 
matrix_signals={vect_signals01; vect_Val_zeros;};

fid01=fopen('myheader.txt','w' );

for i=1:length(vect_signals01)
fprintf(fid01,'%14s  %10s  \n',matrix_signals{i,:});
end
fclose('all');
}

I think it suppose to work even without loop.

The final result in the text file should be:

 'T'             0
 '211A015'       0
 '211B035'       0
 '211A101'       0
........................

[Stephen23]

There are several syntax errors here, such as the

{
code...
}

parentheses, and also a missing quotation mark on the last string of vect_signals. This code does not even run and it generates multiple error messages in the editor.

[dpb]

Do you really want the quote in the file?

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

Try this:

vect_signals = {'T', '211A015', '211B035', '211A101', '211B111', '211N401', '211D411',...
    '21411A151', '21411K152', '21411Q501_2', '21411Q503_2', '21411Q505_2', '21411Q507_2',...
    '21411Q509_2', '21411Q511_2', '22411Q151', '22411Q152', '22411Q501_2', '22411Q503_2',...
    '22411Q505_2', '22411Q507_2', '22411Q509_2', '22411Q511'};
vect_out(2,:) = num2cell(zeros(size(vect_signals)));
vect_out(1,:) = vect_signals;
fid = fopen('temp.txt','wt');
fprintf(fid,'%-14s  %d\n',vect_out{:});
fclose(fid);

Which generates this file:

T               0
211A015         0
211B035         0
211A101         0
211B111         0
211N401         0
211D411         0
21411A151       0
21411K152       0
21411Q501_2     0
21411Q503_2     0
21411Q505_2     0
21411Q507_2     0
21411Q509_2     0
21411Q511_2     0
... ETC

[Ionut Anghel]

It works very nice. Thank you.

[Stephen23]

And if you need the quotation marks around the strings, then simply change this line

vect_out(1,:) = vect_signals;

to this:

vect_out(1,:) = strcat('''',vect_signals,'''');

Answer 2

[dpb]

" I get error "Error using fprintf Function is not defined for 'cell' inputs."

Yes. Cast the cell content to char() when writing...

You also need to build the vect_signals array with a delimiter between the elements; otherwise Matlab simply concatenates them into a long single string.

vect_signals={'T'; '211A015'; ...

[Stephen23]

This is only true for the concatenation operators [], not the cell array constructors {}. But it is certainly preferred to use explicit separators.

>> X = {'T' '211A015' '211B035'}
X = 
    'T'    '211A015'    '211B035'
>> size(X)
ans =
     1     3

http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/specialcharacters.html