MATLAB: Mat2str() on complex values with 0 inaginary part

Question

Hi,

Tried mat2str(complex(5,6)) witch seems ok:

ans =
    '5+6i'

But other complex values with imaginary part 0 or 0+0i are printed as real values:

mat2str(complex(5,0))

ans =
    '5'

mat2str(0+0i)

Seems incorect to me, is this a bug ?

Answer 1

Mathematically 5 is the same as 5+0i, so the output is correct.

So omitting the imaginary part is a question of taste.

If you want to display it, do this expliticitly:

x = 1 + 2i;
sprintf('%g %gi', real(x), imag(x))

Alternatively you can copy the code of mat2str to e.g. mat2stri anywhere in your user-defined folders in the path and remove the line:

imagStr(imagVal == 0) = "";