num2str or str2num?

I am trying to make a table of numbers with corresponding names for example: names and grade table sorted by the number

Bob   97
Joe  87
Sally  88

How do i setup a variable to equal something like a= Bob 97 so when i go to do the fprintf it will sort by the numbers in the second column and leave the corresponding names to the number in the first column

final table should look like:

Name  Grade
Joe     87
Sally  88
Bob    97

[per isakson]

Why not int2str?

[Image Analyst]

Because he wants it sorted by grade, and the grade doesn't necessarily show up in the same column, or even in a single column, if the names have different lengths:

>> int2str('Sally 88')

ans =

83 97 108 108 121 32 32 32 56 56

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Ryan, if you can read in from your input (say, with textscan) and stuff the name into a cell array and stuff the numbers into a double array, then you can sort the double array and sort the cell array the same way, like in this (untested) code:

% Create sample data:
names = {'Bob'; 'Joe'; 'Sally'}
grades = [97 87 88]
% Now sort by ascending grade number:
[sortedGrades sortOrder] = sort(grades, 'ascend');
% Sort the names the same way.
sortedNames = names(sortOrder);
% Now print out to the command window.
fprintf('Name      Grade\n');
for k = 1 : length(sortedGrades)
fprintf('%s   %d\n', sortedNames{k}, sortedGrades(k));
end

In the command window:

names = 
    'Bob'
    'Joe'
    'Sally'
grades =
    97    87    88
Name    Grade
Joe     87
Sally   88
Bob     97

[Ryan Grace]

thanks a bunch that helped me out a lot. Now one more question if you don't mind. How do i make the table "pretty"? the numbers are all out of line, any advice?

ratios=[0.265 0.322 0.310 .230 .288 .271 .318];

names={'Common Dolphin';'Fraser''s Dolphin';'Atlantic Spotted Dolphin';'Bottlenose Dolphin';'Rough Toothed Dolphin';'Striped Dolphin';'Risso''s Dolphin'};

[sortedratios sortOrder] = sort(ratios, 'ascend');

sortedNames = names(sortOrder);

fprintf('Name Ratio,r\n')

for k = 1 : length(sortedratios)

fprintf('%s %6.3f\n', sortedNames{k}, sortedratios(k));

end

that is my code and this is the printed table:

Name Ratio,r

Bottlenose Dolphin 0.230

Common Dolphin 0.265

Striped Dolphin 0.271

Rough Toothed Dolphin 0.288

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin 0.310

Risso's Dolphin 0.318

Fraser's Dolphin 0.322

[Image Analyst]

Yeah, that's hard, unless you want to use a uitable. The tab (\t) is somewhat unreliable as to where it places the next column. What I do is to set the font to a fixed spacing font like Courier (I know, Courier is not "pretty" though) and then use fixed length fields, e.g. %20s or %7d to line things up.

[Ryan Grace]

Ya i just used a number in front of the %s and %f and it looks decent enough for what i am doing. Thanks for your help.