How to center-align uitable cells which are all numerical values?

I've found quite a few answers on this but they mostly discuss the strings. I have numerical values.

Some answers mention setting 'ColumnFormat' to 'bank' which a) doesn't seem to work for me, the cells remain right-align and b) this changes the format of the number where I'd like to keep the default formatting.

Does anyone have an advice on how to align numerical values in my uitable (I only have numerical values - no strings)?

Thank you in advance.

[darova]

Why don't you use sprintf? Convert numbers to strings?

s = sprintf('a = %8.2f\n',1000*rand(10,1))

s = 
    'a =   942.96
     a =   684.09
     a =   170.93
     a =   314.49
     a =   150.75
     a =   146.01
     a =   529.80
     a =   589.68
     a =   443.83
     a =   843.92
     '

[Milos Krsmanovic]

I mean, I was interested in if it's possible to do it with numerical values, as in a general question.

In particular, I have a for loop that reads an array of strings, then uses them to match conditions and pull the data from a table:

crit1 = {'Some','Key','Words','Here','To','Set','The','Criterion'};
crit2 = {'More','Too'};
e = numel(crit1);
for i = 1:e
   data(1,i)=num2cell(mean(tableName.As(results.TableHeading1==string(crit1(i)) & tableName.TableHeading2==string(crit2(1)))));
end 

I use the data to plot the uitable on a figure. But sprintf wouldn't fit in this for loop, would it?

Answer 1

[darova]

Here is an example. Read more about sprintf

crit1 = {'Some','Key','Words','Here','To','Set','The','Criterion'};
s = sprintf('%10s\n',crit1{:})      % 10 places, \n - new line

s = 
    '      Some
            Key
          Words
           Here
             To
            Set
            The
      Criterion
     '

[darova]

Sorry, forgout about center-align. Didn't find that option in sprintf. Maybe you can manually add spaces

crit1 = {'Some','Key','Words','Here','To','Set','The','Criterion'};
sl = cellfun(@length,crit1);      % length of each word (cell)
m = fix((max(sl) - sl)/2);        % number of spaces 
crit11 = crit1;                   % preallocation
for i = 1:length(crit1)
    s = repmat(' ',[1 m(i)]);     % number of spaces
    crit11{i} = [s crit1{i} s];   % add spaces
end
crit11(:)

ans = 8×1 cell array
    {'  Some  ' }
    {'   Key   '}
    {'  Words  '}
    {'  Here  ' }
    {'   To   ' }
    {'   Set   '}
    {'   The   '}
    {'Criterion'}

[Milos Krsmanovic]

All right, I'll give it a try.

I was only wondering if uitable has a property or something that would allow this to be set directly. Seems like a lot of work for something so elementary.

Nevertheless, I appreciate the inputs and I'm accepting this as an answer in case someone else might need it in the future. Cheers.

[darova]

• Seems like a lot of work for something so elementary.

I agree. But basically you don't ask for aligning but for adding some spaces left/right

Here is another approach using strjust

crit1 = {'Some','Key','Words','Here','To','Set','The','Criterion'};
sl = cellfun(@length,crit1);            % length of each word (cell)
sform = ['%' num2str(max(sl)+2) 's'];   % string format for sprintf
s0 = cellfun(@(x)sprintf(sform,x),crit1,'uniformoutput',0)  % add blanks/spaces

s0 = 1×8 cell array
    {'       Some'}    {'        Key'}    {'      Words'}    {'       Here'}    {'         To'}    {'        Set'}    {'        The'}    {'  Criterion'}

strjust(s0,'center')                    % align word by center

ans = 1×8 cell array
    {'   Some    '}    {'    Key    '}    {'   Words   '}    {'   Here    '}    {'    To     '}    {'    Set    '}    {'    The    '}    {' Criterion '}