MATLAB:LaTeX Table Writer

Sometimes you will need to take data from a MATLAB script or function and present it using a LaTeX table. Rather than hand-code all the numbers, you may want to write a MATLAB loop to take care of producing the LaTeX code. This can be done in two parts:

1. Create a single matrix with all the information in it
2. Run a for loop to generate the LaTeX code

Create the Matrix

Probably the easiest way to create the matrix is to make sure all the information you want is stored in column vectors. Then you can just create one large matrix by listing all those vectors between square brackets. For example, if you want to create a table for temperatures in different units, you might have the following code:

TC = [-273.15 -40 0 100]';
TK = TC + 273.15;
TF = (TC+40)*9/5-40;
TR = TF + 459.67;

You could then generate a single matrix will all this information:

MainMat = [TC TK TF TR]

Generate LaTeX Code

Keep in mind for LaTeX tables, the entries are separated by & and the rows are terminated with \\. In MATLAB, to print a \, you must actually use the backslash command, which is \\. To get MATLAB to go to the next line, you need to use the \n command.

The following loop might be used to create the main parts of the LaTeX table for the matrix above:

for k=1:length(TC)
    fprintf('%8.2f & %8.2f & %8.2f & %8.2f \\\\ \n', MainMat(k,:))
end

The output from this code is:

 -273.15 &     0.00 &  -459.67 &     0.00 \\
  -40.00 &   233.15 &   -40.00 &   419.67 \\
    0.00 &   273.15 &    32.00 &   491.67 \\
  100.00 &   373.15 &   212.00 &   671.67 \\

Generalized

If every entry in a row will have the same precision, you can also use

for ROW=1:size(MainMat, 1)
    for COL=1:size(MainMat,2)-1
        fprintf('%8.2f & ', MainMat(ROW,COL));
    end
    fprintf('%8.2f \\\\ \n', MainMat(ROW,end));
end

which will automatically determine the appropriate number of rows and columns for the matrix.

Extra Code

Horizontal Lines

If you want horizontal lines between rows, LaTeX needs the \hline command after the double-slashes. Keeping in mind that MATLAB needs to \ two produce a \, you can write

for k=1:length(TC)
    fprintf('%8.2f & %8.2f & %8.2f & %8.2f \\\\ \\hline \n', MainMat(k,:))
end

to get:

 -273.15 &     0.00 &  -459.67 &     0.00 \\ \hline
  -40.00 &   233.15 &   -40.00 &   419.67 \\ \hline
    0.00 &   273.15 &    32.00 &   491.67 \\ \hline
  100.00 &   373.15 &   212.00 &   671.67 \\ \hline

Questions

Post your questions by editing the discussion page of this article. Edit the page, then scroll to the bottom and add a question by putting in the characters *{{Q}}, followed by your question and finally your signature (with four tildes, i.e. ~~~~). Using the {{Q}} will automatically put the page in the category of pages with questions - other editors hoping to help out can then go to that category page to see where the questions are. See the page for Template:Q for details and examples.