sprintf or disp

I have a question on the application and performance of disp and sprintf. Which one is recommended? For example, what is the difference between the following?

disp(['this is a test number: ' 12])

and

sprintf('this is a test number: %d', 12)

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

The first of the two prints out the quoted string followed by a newline (character 12).

The second of the two prints out

ans =
this is a test number: 12

sprintf() is much more flexible for formatting numbers and strings, but is not able to handle objects.

[AP]

Could you elaborate on handling objects? Thanks.

[Walter Roberson]

For example, you can disp() a structure or a cell array, but sprintf() has no built-in ways to handle those.

[Walter Roberson]

Also note you can get rid of the "ans =" if you use fprintf() instead of sprintf() .

Answer 2

[Krishna Kumar]

disp displays the string or variable in the command windoe, whereas sprintf can be used to output the result into a variable, GUI ,file etc

Answer 3

[Robert Cumming]

As well as being more flexible, sprintf is also much faster than disp when joining strings together like you have shown.

for writing to the command window I normally use fprintf. This also allows you to write your own error/warning/information messages:

fprintf ( 2, 'my error(warning) message in RED!\n' );

The number 2 signifies that you want to write to the command window in red font.