How to print symbols in matlab?

Hi,

I was wondering if I can print symbols in the command window that is not within the ranges of

char(0:255)

For example, the integral symbol which has the unicode of U+0283,or HTML (decimal) 643.

If I can accomplish this, I was wondering how it can implemented.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

>> char(643)

ans =

ʃ

The limit is decimal 65300 if I recall correctly (not 65335 as one would expect.) Note that UTF-8 or UTF-16 encoding is not used

[bluexdestination]

Hi, I realized that when I try to implement the symbol in the code below:

x = strcat (char(643),'i', '1')

the output in the command prompt doesn't display the symbol, instead it displays a space. As shown below:

x =

 i1

However, in the workspace the variable shows the display I want with the integral symbol. I'm using Rmatlab 2012b is that the reason why, or is something disabled such that I cannot view symbols past char(255) in the command window?

Thanks for your help in advance.

[Walter Roberson]

You may need to change your font. Some people have also run into this if their system is configured to use a language other than English.

Answer 2

[Steven Lord]

Instead of trying to display the symbols in the Command Window, consider writing your code in the Live Editor. You can insert equations into a Live Script or Live Function either via an equation editor or via LaTeX.

Answer 3

[Zoe Herrick]

You can try something like this:

str = '$$ \int_{0}^{2} x^2\sin(x) dx $$';
text(1.1,0.5,str,'Interpreter','latex')

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/creating_plots/greek-letters-and-special-characters-in-graph-text.html

Answer 4

[Bart McCoy]

Generating or Printing Unicode Characters in MATLAB:

I'm working with MATLAB 2021, but this has worked for about a year now for me.

In general, Unicode values for different symbols can be found on many sites and most publish the 4-digit HEX value. Looking at this link (Unicode Table for Greek Chars), the Unicode for Greek capital Delta (Δ) is U+0394 or 0x0394 hex.

To get the MATLAB char for Δ, just convert hex to decimal and run it through char, as shown below:

% Extract the Greek char for capital DELTA,  Δ  [either way works]
c = char( hex2dec('0394') )                   % Use '0394' as a char string
c = char( hex2dec( sprintf('%04d', 394) ) )   % Use integer 394 and generate the 4-digit string

NOTE ON SAVING UNICODE CHARS IN .M FILES:

Before 2020 or so, you could paste these chars into a MATLAB script and save the .m file, but when close & reload the .m file, your chars appear as a square. That's because MATLAB didn't save scripts in UTF-8 format, (as I understand it).

In R2021a, MATLAB now saves .m files as UTF-8 by DEFAULT. I have personally verified that I can paste Unicode chars (e.g. all lower/uppercase Greek letters) into a script, save it, close file, reload, and they all appear fine. Someone in this thread indicated that R2020a was when UTF-8 became the default and it actually worked.

Run "ver" to see your MATLAB version or do a File ==> Save As, to see if the default file format for .m files is UTF-8 (required to save unicode chars)

[Stephen23]

Note since version R2019b you can enter hex values directly, so no need to use HEX2DEC:

c = char(0x394)

c = 'Δ'

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/specify-hexadecimal-and-binary-numbers.html