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Table fields in format in PDF report generator - Matlab


When I save a table as PDF (using report generator) I do not get the numeric fields (Index1, Index2, Index3) shortG format (total of 5 digits). What is the problem and how can I fix it?

The code:

function ButtonPushed(app, event)
        import mlreportgen.dom.*;
        import mlreportgen.report.*

        format shortG;
        ID = [1;2;3;4;5];
        Name = {'San';'John';'Lee';'Boo';'Jay'};
        Index1 = [71.1252;69.2343245;64.345345;67.345322;64.235235];
        Index2 = [176.23423;163.123423654;131.45364572;133.5789435;119.63575647];
        Index3 = [176.234;16.123423654;31.45364572;33.5789435;11.6647];
        mt = table(ID,Name,Index1,Index2,Index3);


        d = Document('myPDF','pdf');
        d.OutputPath = ['E:/','temp'];

        append(d,'Table 1: '); 
        append(d,mt); 
        close(d);
        rptview(d.OutputPath); 
end

Solution

  • To fix it, format your numeric arrays to character arrays with 5 significant digits before writing to PDF.

    mt = table(ID,Name,f(Index1),f(Index2),f(Index3));
    

    where,

    function FivDigsStr = f(x)
    %formatting to character array with 5 significant digits and then splitting. 
    %at each tab. categorical is needed to remove ' 's that appear around char 
    %in the output PDF file with newer MATLAB versions
    %e.g. with R2018a, there are no ' ' in the output file but ' ' appears with R2020a
    FivDigsStr = categorical(split(sprintf('%0.5G\t',x)));
    %Removing the last (<undefined>) value (which is included due to \t)
    FivDigsStr = FivDigsStr(1:end-1);
    end
    

    The above change gives the following result:


    Edit:

    To bring back the headers:

    mt.Properties.VariableNames(3:end) = {'Index1', 'Index2', 'Index3'};
    

    or in a more general way to extract the variable names instead of hardcoding them, you can use inputnames to extract the variable names.

    V = @(x) inputname(1);
    mt.Properties.VariableNames(3:end) = {V(Index1), V(Index2), V(Index3)};
    

    which gives: