Display matrix with row and column labels

Question

Is there a convenient way to display a matrix with row and column labels in the Matlab terminal? Something like this:

M = rand(5);
displaymatrix(M, {'FOO','BAR','BAZ','BUZZ','FUZZ'}, ...
                 {'ROW1','ROW2','ROW3','ROW4','ROW5'});    %??

yielding:

        FOO       BAR       BAZ       BUZZ      FUZZ
ROW1    0.1622    0.4505    0.1067    0.4314    0.8530
ROW2    0.7943    0.0838    0.9619    0.9106    0.6221
ROW3    0.3112    0.2290    0.0046    0.1818    0.3510
ROW4    0.5285    0.9133    0.7749    0.2638    0.5132
ROW5    0.1656    0.1524    0.8173    0.1455    0.4018

Even better would be something with some ASCII-art niceties:

     |   FOO       BAR       BAZ       BUZZ      FUZZ
-----+-------------------------------------------------
ROW1 |   0.1622    0.4505    0.1067    0.4314    0.8530
ROW2 |   0.7943    0.0838    0.9619    0.9106    0.6221
ROW3 |   0.3112    0.2290    0.0046    0.1818    0.3510
ROW4 |   0.5285    0.9133    0.7749    0.2638    0.5132
ROW5 |   0.1656    0.1524    0.8173    0.1455    0.4018

This question is from 2011, the accepted answer from 2012. Matlab2013b introduced the `table` datatype, which does exactly what was asked in the original question (see answer by Sh3ljohn). — Martin J.H., Apr 23 '16 at 17:41
It should be noted that none of the solutions below are available for *Octave*, so I posted my own question [here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55846664/how-to-pretty-print-a-matrix-in-octave). — not2qubit, Apr 25 '19 at 10:11

score 20 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 15 '12 at 10:47

Matlab has a function called printmat in the Control Systems toolbox. It's in the directory "ctrlobsolete", so we can assume that it is considered "obsolete", but it still works.

The help text is:

>> help printmat
 printmat Print matrix with labels.
    printmat(A,NAME,RLAB,CLAB) prints the matrix A with the row labels
    RLAB and column labels CLAB.  NAME is a string used to name the 
    matrix.  RLAB and CLAB are string variables that contain the row
    and column labels delimited by spaces.  For example, the string

        RLAB = 'alpha beta gamma';

    defines 'alpha' as the label for the first row, 'beta' for the
    second row and 'gamma' for the third row.  RLAB and CLAB must
    contain the same number of space delimited labels as there are 
    rows and columns respectively.

    printmat(A,NAME) prints the matrix A with numerical row and column
    labels.  printmat(A) prints the matrix A without a name.

    See also: printsys.

Example:

>> M = rand(5);
>> printmat(M, 'My Matrix', 'ROW1 ROW2 ROW3 ROW4 ROW5', 'FOO BAR BAZ BUZZ FUZZ' )

My Matrix = 
                       FOO          BAR          BAZ         BUZZ         FUZZ
         ROW1      0.81472      0.09754      0.15761      0.14189      0.65574
         ROW2      0.90579      0.27850      0.97059      0.42176      0.03571
         ROW3      0.12699      0.54688      0.95717      0.91574      0.84913
         ROW4      0.91338      0.95751      0.48538      0.79221      0.93399
         ROW5      0.63236      0.96489      0.80028      0.95949      0.67874

score 14 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 15 '12 at 10:50

It looks like your data has some structure to it so you can put it in a more structured class - a dataset, part of the Statistics toolbox.

>> M = rand(5);
>> dataset({M 'FOO','BAR','BAZ','BUZZ','FUZZ'}, ...
                'obsnames', {'ROW1','ROW2','ROW3','ROW4','ROW5'})

ans = 
            FOO        BAR         BAZ        BUZZ         FUZZ    
    ROW1    0.52853     0.68921    0.91334     0.078176     0.77491
    ROW2    0.16565     0.74815    0.15238      0.44268      0.8173
    ROW3    0.60198     0.45054    0.82582      0.10665     0.86869
    ROW4    0.26297    0.083821    0.53834       0.9619    0.084436
    ROW5    0.65408     0.22898    0.99613    0.0046342     0.39978

Alternatively, if you are publishing your output, here is one example of several functions that will take a matrix w/ row,col names and produce an html formatted table.

Just to add that Matlab added a [table](http://blogs.mathworks.com/loren/2013/09/10/introduction-to-the-new-matlab-data-types-in-r2013b/) datatype in 2013b which is similar to the `dataset` but does not require the stats toolbox — Dan, Jul 15 '14 at 11:11

Jonathan H · Answer 3 · 2015-05-01T08:59:14.430

I know this is an old post, but I believe the solution is to use array2table. Specifically in the case of the OP, one would simply do:

>> M = rand(5);
>> names= {'A','B','C','D','E'}; 
>> array2table( M, 'VariableNames', names, 'RowNames', names )

ans = 

            A          B          C          D          E    
         _______    _______    _______    _______    ________

    A    0.81472    0.09754    0.15761    0.14189     0.65574
    B    0.90579     0.2785    0.97059    0.42176    0.035712
    C    0.12699    0.54688    0.95717    0.91574     0.84913
    D    0.91338    0.95751    0.48538    0.79221     0.93399
    E    0.63236    0.96489    0.80028    0.95949     0.67874

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 01 '11 at 22:14

Here is one quick and dirty approach:

horzcat({'';'ROW1';'ROW2';'ROW3';'ROW4';'ROW5'}, ...
        vertcat({'FOO','BAR','BAZ','BUZZ','FUZZ'},...
                num2cell(rand(5))))

yielding:

ans = 

    ''        'FOO'       'BAR'       'BAZ'       'BUZZ'      'FUZZ'  
    'ROW1'    [0.3015]    [0.6665]    [0.0326]    [0.3689]    [0.6448]
    'ROW2'    [0.7011]    [0.1781]    [0.5612]    [0.4607]    [0.3763]
    'ROW3'    [0.6663]    [0.1280]    [0.8819]    [0.9816]    [0.1909]
    'ROW4'    [0.5391]    [0.9991]    [0.6692]    [0.1564]    [0.4283]
    'ROW5'    [0.6981]    [0.1711]    [0.1904]    [0.8555]    [0.4820]

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 14 '14 at 20:34

Matthew Oberhardt, usefull code, I added the name to the matrix, here is it the new code so simple just added one more variable And also I let an example to use it, notice that conv is a mxn matrix.

---------------CODE---------------

function out = dispmat(M,name,row_labels,col_labels);
%% Matthew Oberhardt 
% 02/08/2013
% intended to display a matrix along with row and column labels. 
%% ex:
% M = rand(2,3);
% row_labels = {'a';'b'};
% col_labels = {'c 1','c2 ','c3'};
% % if there are no labels for rows or cols, put '' as the input.
% row_labels = '';

%Modified 14.07.2014
%Nestor Cantu
%Added the name of the matrix.

%% check that the row & col labels are the right sizes
[nrows,ncols] = size(M);

%% populate if either of the inputs is empty 
if isempty(row_labels)
row_labels = cell(1,nrows);
    for n = 1:nrows
        row_labels{1,n} = '|'; 
    end
end
if isempty(col_labels)
    col_labels = cell(1,ncols);
    for n = 1:ncols
        col_labels{1,n} = '-';
    end
end

assert(length(row_labels)==nrows,'wrong # of row labels');
assert(length(col_labels)==ncols,'wrong # of col labels');

row_labels = reshape(row_labels,1,length(row_labels));
col_labels = reshape(col_labels,1,length(col_labels));

%% remove spaces (since they are separators in printmat.m
cols = strrep(col_labels, ' ', '_');
rows = strrep(row_labels, ' ', '_');

%% create labels, space delimited
c_out = [];
for n = 1:length(cols)
    c_out = [c_out,cols{n},' '];
end
c_out = c_out(1:end-1);
r_out = [];
for n = 1:length(rows)
    r_out = [r_out,rows{n},' '];
end
r_out = r_out(1:end-1);

%% print

printmat(M,name,r_out,c_out)


end

----------EXAMPLE with matrix conv(5,4)--------------

[m n] = size(conv);
for i=1:n
    col{i} = ['K = ' num2str(i)];
end

for i=1:m
    row{i} = ['n =' num2str(i)];
end

outMat(conv,'Convergence',row',col);

--------------RESULT--------------------------

Convergence = 
                 K_=_1        K_=_2        K_=_3        K_=_4        K_=_5
     n_=1      0.74218      0.42070      0.11101 9.86259e-006 9.86259e-006
     n_=2      0.49672      0.26686      0.00233 4.46114e-011 4.46114e-011
     n_=3      0.01221      0.00488 1.23422e-007            0            0
     n_=4      0.00010 7.06889e-008 7.06889e-008            0            0

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 08 '13 at 16:23

I've written some code that might be helpful -- it uses the 'printmat' function, but changes the inputs so they are cell vectors containing the column &/or row labels. hope it's helpful.

function out = dispmat(M,row_labels,col_labels);
%% Matthew Oberhardt
% 02/08/2013
% intended to display a matrix along with row and column labels.
% % ex:
% M = rand(2,3);
% row_labels = {'a';'b'};
% col_labels = {'c 1','c2 ','c3'};
% % if there are no labels for rows or cols, put '' as the input.
% row_labels = '';

%% check that the row & col labels are the right sizes
[nrows,ncols] = size(M);

%% populate if either of the inputs is empty 
if isempty(row_labels)
    row_labels = cell(1,nrows);
    for n = 1:nrows
        row_labels{1,n} = '|'; 
    end
end
if isempty(col_labels)
    col_labels = cell(1,ncols);
    for n = 1:ncols
        col_labels{1,n} = '-';
    end
end

assert(length(row_labels)==nrows,'wrong # of row labels');
assert(length(col_labels)==ncols,'wrong # of col labels');

row_labels = reshape(row_labels,1,length(row_labels));
col_labels = reshape(col_labels,1,length(col_labels));

%% remove spaces (since they are separators in printmat.m
cols = strrep(col_labels, ' ', '_');
rows = strrep(row_labels, ' ', '_');

%% create labels, space delimited
c_out = [];
for n = 1:length(cols)
    c_out = [c_out,cols{n},' '];
end
c_out = c_out(1:end-1);

r_out = [];
for n = 1:length(rows)
    r_out = [r_out,rows{n},' '];
end
r_out = r_out(1:end-1);

%% print
printmat(M, '',r_out,c_out)

Display matrix with row and column labels

6 Answers6

Linked

Related