MATLAB: Is fprintf not printing the first whitespace in a string

Question

Using

C = textscan(fid, '%s', 'delimiter', '\n', 'whitespace', ' ')

I read in a file which contains both numbers and characters.

Some lines begin with negative numbers and others with postive.

The lines that begin with a postive number have an additional whitespace in the front as this type of format is essential for my application.

For example, this should be the correct format:

2.95257637E+00 1.39690040E-03-4.92631603E-07 7.86010195E-11-4.60755204E-15 E

-9.23948688E+02 5.87188762E+00 3.53100528E+00-1.23660988E-04-5.02999433E-07 E

The second line begins with a negative sign and the first a space to offset the numbers that follow.

The letter "E" at the end of each line indicates that I have the same # of characters per row, as well as the same locations for each entry.

I have veritfied that the imported cell contains the additional space in the front when beginning with a postive number.

However, when I attempt to write the modified version of the cell to a new file with

fprintf(fid,new_C{:});

The extra space in the front disappears no matter what delimeter I try.

2.95257637E+00 1.39690040E-03-4.92631603E-07 7.86010195E-11-4.60755204E-15 E

-9.23948688E+02 5.87188762E+00 3.53100528E+00-1.23660988E-04-5.02999433E-07 E

How can I modify the function such that I obtain the output I desire?

Thank you

Answer 1

Read carefully FPRINTF document; the first argument after optional fid is a a FORMAT; not arguments. So you must add '%s'

fprintf(fid,'%s',new_C{:});