MATLAB: Preserve spaces when using fprintf with strcat to show variables, spaces and strings on screen to user

fprintfpreserve spaces in stringsstrcat

Hi,
I have had a try at getting a string ending with a space to be preserved on screen using fprintf and strcat together but cannot preserve the spaces.
B=strcat(PR1,'.mat');
filey=B
% Y='.*2'
%  if ~isempty(regexp(directory,Y))
%  end
% *****************************
%%THIS PRODUCES A LIST OF ONLY THE MAT FILES
  d=dir;
%   d1=cellstr(d)
    d1=struct2cell(d);
    d2=d1(1,:);
    d3=cellfun(@(x) regexp(x,'.mat'),d2,'uni',false);
    d4=find(~cellfun('isempty', d3));
    theMATfiles=d2(d4)'
    natsort(theMATfiles)%download natsort function from file exchange
% pwd
k=1;
% for k = 1:20
  % Create a mat filename, and load it into a structure called matData.
    matFileName = sprintf('mat%d.mat',k);
%     save(matFileName)
%     load('matData.mat')
      if exist(B, 'file')
      A = load(filey);
            fprintf(strcat('HURRAH!! File',{''},B,' does exist.\n'));
    else
  %     fprintf('File %s does not exist.\n', matFileName);
          fprintf(strcat('NOPE!! File','_',B,' does not exist.\n'));
    end
I have tried placing a space e.g. {''} but it did not work, I get the following error:
Error using fprintf
Invalid file identifier.  Use fopen to generate a valid file identifier.
Error in mat_ides_03 (line 53)
          fprintf(strcat('HURRAH!! File',{''},B,' does exist.\n'));

Best Answer

C = strcat('HURRAH!! File',{''},B,' does exist.\n')
This creates a cell string. Then fprintf must fail, because it accepts strings only. Use this:
fprintf('HURRAH!! File %s does exist.\n', B);
This is safer, because the file name can contain control characters like '\n'.
Note:
natsort(theMATfiles)
is useless, because the output is not caught. Do you mean:
theMATfiles = natsort(theMATfiles);
Simplification:
    d = dir;
    d1=struct2cell(d);
    d2=d1(1,:);
    d3=cellfun(@(x) regexp(x,'.mat'),d2,'uni',false);
    d4=find(~cellfun('isempty', d3));
Easier:
FileDir  = dir('*.mat');
FileName = {FileDir.name};
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