Table fields in format in PDF report generator - Matlab - matlab

Question

When I save a table as PDF (using report generator) I do not get the numeric fields (Index1, Index2, Index3) shortG format (total of 5 digits). What is the problem and how can I fix it?
The code:
function ButtonPushed(app, event)
import mlreportgen.dom.*;
import mlreportgen.report.*
format shortG;
ID = [1;2;3;4;5];
Name = {'San';'John';'Lee';'Boo';'Jay'};
Index1 = [71.1252;69.2343245;64.345345;67.345322;64.235235];
Index2 = [176.23423;163.123423654;131.45364572;133.5789435;119.63575647];
Index3 = [176.234;16.123423654;31.45364572;33.5789435;11.6647];
mt = table(ID,Name,Index1,Index2,Index3);
d = Document('myPDF','pdf');
d.OutputPath = ['E:/','temp'];
append(d,'Table 1: ');
append(d,mt);
close(d);
rptview(d.OutputPath);
end

Answer 1

To fix it, format your numeric arrays to character arrays with 5 significant digits before writing to PDF.
mt = table(ID,Name,f(Index1),f(Index2),f(Index3));
where,
function FivDigsStr = f(x)
%formatting to character array with 5 significant digits and then splitting.
%at each tab. categorical is needed to remove ' 's that appear around char
%in the output PDF file with newer MATLAB versions
%e.g. with R2018a, there are no ' ' in the output file but ' ' appears with R2020a
FivDigsStr = categorical(split(sprintf('%0.5G\t',x)));
%Removing the last (<undefined>) value (which is included due to \t)
FivDigsStr = FivDigsStr(1:end-1);
end
The above change gives the following result:
Edit:
To bring back the headers:
mt.Properties.VariableNames(3:end) = {'Index1', 'Index2', 'Index3'};
or in a more general way to extract the variable names instead of hardcoding them, you can use inputnames to extract the variable names.
V = #(x) inputname(1);
mt.Properties.VariableNames(3:end) = {V(Index1), V(Index2), V(Index3)};
which gives: