Live Editor Output on the same line

I have a loop in my code and I would like to print the temperature value until it is outside a specific range.

while ~temp_ok
    pause(1);
    clc;
    fprintf('Temperature = %0.1f °C \n',ReadTemperature);
    if (abs(ReadTemperature - TargetTemperature) < TEMP_TOLERANCE )
        temp_ok = true;
    end
end

The output window shows a line for each loop iteration:

Temperature = 22.8 °C

Temperature = 22.8 °C

Temperature = 22.8 °C

...

Is it possible to program Live Editor to print the output strings to the same line? With the previous editor it was very easy...

[Walter Roberson]

I notice the clc there which would clear the command window each iteration. I suspect that you are therefore wanting to overwrite a fixed output position on the screen -- is that correct?

[Stefano Zontone]

Yes, correct.

Pls, notice I am referring to Live Editor Output. I used a similar script with the standard editor and the output on the Command Window was ok. The clc command doesn's seem to work with Live Editor Output and I don't find a way to overwrite the previous output string with the updated one.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

There is no publicly known way to do what you are asking.

In recent discussions about related issues (having to do with removing plots), Mathworks staff have said they will ask the developers to provide methods. The response was not entirely clear as to whethere there is no internal method at the moment, or if there is an internal method but there is no public interface to it.

Answer 2

[K.]

While there is currently no way to programmatically clear the output in the Live Editor, the following (copied from another post of mine) might help. Some people have used the ‘\b’ (backspace) character to create textual progress indicators (e.g. https://blogs.mathworks.com/loren/2007/08/01/monitoring-progress-of-a-calculation/). I believe there are some tools for this on File Exchange, but as an example, you could do something like the following. Note that this is a crude example only meant to demonstrate the concept.

for ind=1:20
    pause(.1)
    printStatus(ind) % Do the fprints in a local function so that all the textual output is coming from one line in the script.
end
function printStatus (ind)
    if ind == 1
        % The very first time we don't need to delete the old text
        fprintf('Last processed sample: %5d', ind);
    else
        % Each \b removes one character from the previous fprintf.
        fprintf('\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\bLast processed sample: %5d', ind);
    end
end

[Stefano Zontone]

Thank you for your suggestion...it sounds good for my needs.

Answer 3

[Stefano Zontone]

Hi Walter,

thank you for your answer.

I hope Mathworks will soon improve Live Editor functionalities...I find it very interesting and useful.

BR

S