Main Content

blanks

Create character array of blanks

Description

example

Note

pad is recommended over blanks because it provides greater flexibility and allows vectorization. For additional information, see Alternative Functionality.

chr = blanks(n) returns a 1-by-n array of space characters.

Examples

collapse all

Create an array of five blanks. To display it, embed it in a character array that starts and ends with a visible character.

b = blanks(5);
chr = ['|' b '|']
chr = 
'|     |'

Embed the blanks in a string and display the string. You can create strings using double quotes.

str = "Due Date:" + b + "2017-01-13"
str = 
"Due Date:     2017-01-13"

Input Arguments

collapse all

Number of space characters, specified as an integer.

  • If n is 0, then blanks returns a 1-by-0 character array.

  • If n is less than 0, then blanks treats it as 0.

Data Types: double | single | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

Alternative Functionality

Update code that makes use of blanks to use pad instead. Unlike blanks, which creates a new character vector of whitespace characters, pad adds whitespace characters to an existing piece of text and returns the same data-type as the input. For example:

Not RecommendedRecommended
str = blanks(5)
str =

    '     '
str = pad("",5)
str = 

    "     "

Extended Capabilities

C/C++ Code Generation
Generate C and C++ code using MATLAB® Coder™.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a