Convert from Numeric Values to Character Array

Function Summary

The functions listed in this table provide a number of ways to convert numeric data to character arrays.

Function	Description	Example
`char`	Convert a positive integer to an equivalent character. (Truncates any fractional parts.)	`[72 105]` → `'Hi'`
`string`	Convert an array of double-precision values to a string array.	`[72 105]` → `"72" "105"` `[3.1416 2.178]` → `"3.1416" "2.178"`
`int2str`	Convert a positive or negative integer to a character type. (Rounds any fractional parts.)	`[72 105]` → `'72 105'`
`num2str`	Convert a numeric type to a character type of the specified precision and format.	`[72 105]` → `'72/105/'` (format set to `%1d/`)
`mat2str`	Convert a numeric type to a character type of the specified precision, returning a character vector MATLAB^® can evaluate.	`[72 105]` → `'[72 105]'`
`dec2hex`	Convert a positive integer to a character type of hexadecimal base.	`[72 105]` → `'48 69'`
`dec2bin`	Convert a positive integer to a character type of binary base.	`[72 105]` → `'1001000` `1101001'`
`dec2base`	Convert a positive integer to a character type of any base from 2 through 36.	`[72 105]` → `'110 151'` (base set to `8`)

Convert Numbers to Character Codes

The char function converts integers to Unicode^® character codes and returns a character array composed of the equivalent characters:

x = [77 65 84 76 65 66];
char(x)
ans =

    'MATLAB'

Represent Numbers as Text

The int2str, num2str, and mat2str functions represent numeric values as text where each character represents a separate digit of the input value. The int2str and num2str functions are often useful for labeling plots. For example, the following lines use num2str to prepare automated labels for the x-axis of a plot:

function plotlabel(x, y)
plot(x, y)
chr1 = num2str(min(x));
chr2 = num2str(max(x));
out = ['Value of f from ' chr1 ' to ' chr2];
xlabel(out);

Convert to Specific Radix

Another class of conversion functions changes numeric values into character arrays representing a decimal value in another base, such as binary or hexadecimal representation. This includes dec2hex, dec2bin, and dec2base.

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