How can I distribute a single sprintf input to multiple formatting operators?

Currently, I have a setup like: sprintf('%s %s','foo','foo'). I would ideally like something more concise, like: sprintf('%s %s','foo'), with an output of 'foo foo'. Is there a clean way to do this?

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

You can specify which of the data inputs you want each "section" of the format specifier input you want to use by adding a number and $ between the % and the formatting character. In the example below, the first data input 'foo' is used twice, once in the first section of the format specifier and once in the third section. Between those two, the second section uses the second data input 42.

S = sprintf('%1$s %2$d %1$s', 'foo', 42)

S = 'foo 42 foo'

[Fletcher Young]

This is what I was looking for. Thank you!

[Stephen23]

See under Format Spec -> Optional Operators -> Identifier:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/string.sprintf.html#btf_bfy-1_sep_shared-formatSpec