Illustration of Output statements:

For illustration,

>> disp('Hello')

Hello

>> disp(4^3)

  64

The formatted output can be printed to the screen by using the fprintf function. For illustration,

>> fprintf('The value is %d, for sure!\n',4^3)

The value is 64, for sure!

To the fprintf function, first a string (known as the format string) is passed, that holds any text to be printed as well as formatting information for the expressions to be printed. In this illustration, the %d is an illustration of format information. The %d is sometimes known as placeholder; it identifies where the value of the expression which is after the string is to be printed. The character in the placeholder is termed as the conversion character, and it identifies the kind of value which is being printed. There are many others, but what follows is a list of the simple placeholders:

%d integers (it really stands for decimal integer)

%f floats

%c single characters

%s strings

Do not confuse the % in the placeholder with the symbol used to designate a comment.

The character '\n' at the end of the string is a special character known as the new-line character; whenever it printed the output moves down to the next line.