MATLAB: Line comment change string cell shape

Question

I found when I use line comment to erase some my content for a string cell, the cell shape change to row from original column

like this

>> a={'first' …

, 'second' …

, 'third'}

a =

'first' 'second' 'third'

>> a={'first' …

% , 'second' …

, 'third'}

a =

'first'

'third'

I have already tried 2013a and 2015b, they shared the same result.

I just want to change my test case sometime quickly for a simple test, but that messed up the following code with my for loop will use like this

for a_n = a

a_n = a_n{:};

That will be good if I don't comment anything, but failed to only loop once with my first case.

Any answer about why the shape of string cell will change when there are line comments is appreciated.

Answer 1

I just try a two different line comment (matlab2019b), and here are the results,

(1)

>> a = {'A', 'B'}
a =
  1×2 cell array
    {'A'}    {'B'}

(2)

>> a = {'A'
,'B'}
a =
  2×1 cell array
    {'A'}
    {'B'}

You can see that matlab sees the second assignment equal to

a = {'A';'B'}

So a column cell array is assigned.

In your example,

a={'first' ...
% , 'second' ...
, 'third'}

equals to

a={'first' ... % , 'second' ...
, 'third'}

and

a={'first' 
, 'third'}

Hence you get a column like the previous (2).

If you want to erase some content and keep the row shape at the same time, maybe you should also add '...' before the '%', namely,

a={'first' ...
... % , 'second' ...
, 'third'}

gives you

a =
  1×2 cell array
    {'first'}    {'third'}