MATLAB: Width & Precision Number Formatting in Documentation

number formatting sprintf

In the Matlab documentation for sprintf (https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/sprintf.html), in the Precision section, the second example shown is:
Example: The input arguments ('%6.4f',pi) are equivalent to ('%.*f',6,4,pi)
However, this is not the answer I see when trying it myself. I get 3.1416 for the first set of inputs and 4.000000 for the second set of inputs. I wonder if they meant to use a '*' instead of a '6' in the first set of inputs? If this is indeed an error, it exists in documentation for other functions as well (e.g., fprintf). Would anyone be able to help clarify?

Best Answer

Interesting. That seems to be a typographical error in the documentation:
‘Example: The input arguments ('%6.4f',pi) are equivalent to ('%.*f',6,4,pi)’
There is a missing asterisk. It should be: 
Out = sprintf('%*.*f', 6,4,pi)
producing: 
Out =
    '3.1416'
The example just below that has it correct:
‘Example: The input arguments ('%*.*f',6,4,pi,9,6,exp(1)) return '3.1416 2.718282', with 9 and 6 as the field width and precision for the output of exp(1).’
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