NCL Home > Documentation > Functions > String manipulation

print_table

Prints formatted elements from a list to stdout.

Available in version 6.1.0 and later.

Prototype

	procedure print_table (
		alist  [1] : list,    
		format [1] : string   
	)

Arguments

alist

The list of variables to print.

format

The format string indicating how to print each item in the list.

Description

This procedure prints formatted elements from a list to stdout, using the given format string.

Use write_table if you want to send the formatted output to a file.

See Also

write_table, write_matrix, asciiwrite, sprintf, sprinti

Examples

Example 1

A simple example showing how to print an array of strings and integers:

  strings = (/"string11","string12","string13"/)
  numbers = (/1,2,3/)
  alist   = [/strings,numbers/]
  print_table(alist, "%s%d")
The output will be:

string11 1
string12 2
string13 3

Note that write_table automatically inserted spaces between the strings and integers. If you don't want the spaces, then you will need to append the integers yourself:

  strings = (/"string11","string12","string13"/)
  numbers = (/1,2,3/)
  alist   = [/strings + numbers/]    ; Use '+' to concatenate numbers to end of strings
  print_table(alist, "%s")

The output will now contain no spaces:

string111
string122
string133
Example 2

This example shows how print several different types of variables (integer, float, string, shorts, longs) to the screen using formatted strings, and separated by commas:

 a = (/111, 222, 333, 444/)
 b = (/1.1, 2.2, 3.3/)
 c = (/"a", "b", "c"/)
 d = (/11h, 22h/)
 f = (/11l, 22l, 33l, 44l, 55l, 66l/)

 alist = [/a, b, c, d, f/]

 print_table(alist,"%d,%16.2f,%s,%d,%ld")

Output will be:

111,            1.10,a,11,11
222,            2.20,b,22,22
333,            3.30,c,  ,33
444,                , ,  ,44
   ,                , ,  ,55
   ,                , ,  ,66

Example 3

This is similar to the previous example, except now an array of header strings are printed first, followed by the data, followed by an array of footer strings:

 a = (/111, 222, 333, 444/)
 b = (/1.1, 2.2, 3.3/)
 c = (/"1", "22", "333", "aaaaaa", "bbbb", "cc"/)
 d = (/11h, 22h/)
 f = (/11l, 22l, 33l, 44l, 55l, 66l/)

 alist = [/a, b, c, d, f/]

 header = (/"--------------------------------", \
            "This is a file header", \
            "--------------------------------"/)
 footer = (/"--------------------------------", \
            "This is a file footer", \
            "--------------------------------"/)

 hlist = [/header/]
 flist = [/footer/]

 print_table(hlist, "%s")
 print_table(alist, "%d%16.2f%s%d%ld")
 print_table(flist, "%s")

Output will be:

--------------------------------
This is a file header
--------------------------------
111             1.10 1      11 11
222             2.20 22     22 22
333             3.30 333       33
444                  aaaaaa    44
                     bbbb      55
                     cc        66
--------------------------------
This is a file footer
--------------------------------

Example 4

This example shows how you can format integers of different numbers of digits (e.g. '95' versus '105' or '905' versus '1005') so they are pre-padded with zeros:

 i = ispan( 8, 13, 1)
 j = ispan(80,130,10)
 print_table([/i,j/],"low_%04i high_%04i")

Output will be:

low_0008 high_0080
low_0009 high_0090
low_0010 high_0100
low_0011 high_0110
low_0012 high_0120
low_0013 high_0130

Example 5

The variable type must be appropriate for the format. If the user does not specify the width, then the function will use default settings.

       sta  = (/"Mum", "RNC", "CNB"/)   ; type string
       Temp = (/30, 20, 25/)            ; type integer
       RH   = (/80, 900, 95/)
       WS   = (/2, 3, 4/)
       WD   = (/80, 150, 95/)
       Time = 201411050800l             ; the appended 'l' makes this a 'long' int

       print_table([/Time/], "%li")
       print_table([/"Station","Temp","RH","WS","WD"/], "%s %s %s %s %s ")
       print_table([/sta,Temp,RH,WS,WD/],"%s %i %i %i %i")

; change to float; use  :=  syntax

       Temp := (/30, 20, 25/)*1.0
       RH   := (/80, 900, 95/)*1.0
       WS   := (/2, 3, 4/)*1.0
       WD   := (/80, 150, 95/)*1.0

       print_table([/Time/], "%li")
       print_table([/"Station","Temp","RH","WS","WD"/], "%s %s %s %s %s ")
       print_table([/sta,Temp,RH,WS,WD/],"%s %f %f %f %f")

With default settings for %i, the output will look like:

201411050800
Station Temp RH WS WD 
Mum 30 80 2 80
RNC 20 900 3 150
CNB 25 95 4 95
With default settings for %f, the output will look like:

201411050800
Station Temp RH WS WD 
Mum 30.000000 80.000000 2.000000 80.000000
RNC 20.000000 900.000000 3.000000 150.000000
CNB 25.000000 95.000000 4.000000 95.000000