Question

In a matlab script, I’m generating a latex table. A part of that table for example looks likes this.

\multirow{2}{*}{\textbf{b1}}
&
2 & 3 & 10092 & 10763 & 103390 & 2797 & 2929 & 3008 & 5\% & 8\% \\
& 4 & 2 & 20184 & 10763 & 74508 & 1830 & 1970 & 2029 & 8\% & 11\% \\

This string is saved in variable str. Now when I try to write str to a file by using the following code.

f = fopen( 'report\results.tex', 'w' );
fprintf( f, str );
fclose(f);

I get the following warning.

Warning: Invalid escape sequence appears in format string. 
See help sprintf for valid escape sequences.

That is probably due to many backslash characters in my string, which is used as escape sequence. Now how can I print this string to a file as it is.

Answer 1

escape the backslashes and percent signs:

str = strrep(str,'\','\\');
str = strrep(str,'%','%%');

If it’s just text your printing, this’ll be fine.

Minimal working example:

str = '2 & 3 & 10092 & 10763 & 103390 & 2797 & 2929 & 3008 & 5\% & 8\% \\'
str = strrep(str,'\','\\');
str = strrep(str,'%','%%');
f=fopen('testing123.txt','w');
fprintf(f,str);
fclose(f);

and the file reads:

2 & 3 & 10092 & 10763 & 103390 & 2797 & 2929 & 3008 & 5\% & 8\% \\

OR as Ben A. suggests, use fwrite:

fwrite(f,str)

and I think

fprintf(f,'%s',str)

will also do the trick, and it’s best to also include a newline:

fprintf(f,'%s\n',str)