How can I make my output into a 2D char array instead of separate answers?

Hi, sorry if this is trivial, but I am writing a function that gives directions on how to solve the Tower of Hanoi given d discs, and I can't quite seem to figure out how to produce a single 2D char array that contains all the instructions for solving the game on separate lines. The output I am looking for looks like this:

instruction =
    'Move one disk from peg 1 to peg 2'
    'Move one disk from peg 1 to peg 3'
    'Move one disk from peg 2 to peg 3'

My code looks like this and produces the instructions on separate output statements only if I omit a semicolon at the end of the sprintf line:

function instruction = hanoi(d, origin, inter, target)

if d == 1
    instruction = sprintf('Move one disk from peg %s to peg %s', origin, target)
else
    hanoi(d-1, origin, target, inter);
    hanoi(1, origin, inter, target);
    hanoi(d-1, inter, origin, target);
end
end

My idea was to concatenate each line, but it doesn't seem possible without resetting what's contained in the variable instruction.

Thank you in advance.

EDIT for solution I ended up figuring out:

function instruction = hanoi(d, origin, inter, target)

if d == 1
    instruction = sprintf('Move one disk from peg %s to peg %s', origin, target);
else
    instruction = hanoi(d-1, origin, target, inter);
    instruction = [instruction; hanoi(1, origin, inter, target)];
    instruction = [instruction; hanoi(d-1, inter, origin, target)];
end

end

[Stephen23]

Original question (from Google Cache):

"How can I make my output into a 2D char array instead of separate answers?"

Hi, sorry if this is trivial, but I am writing a function that gives directions on how to solve the Tower of Hanoi given d discs, and I can't quite seem to figure out how to produce a single 2D char array that contains all the instructions for solving the game on separate lines. The output I am looking for looks like this:

instruction =

'Move one disk from peg 1 to peg 2'

'Move one disk from peg 1 to peg 3'

'Move one disk from peg 2 to peg 3'

My code looks like this and produces the instructions on separate output statements only if I omit a semicolon at the end of the sprintf line:

function instruction = hanoi(d, origin, inter, target)

if d == 1

instruction = sprintf('Move one disk from peg %s to peg %s', origin, target)

else

hanoi(d-1, origin, target, inter);

hanoi(1, origin, inter, target);

hanoi(d-1, inter, origin, target);

end

end

My idea was to concatenate each line, but it doesn't seem possible without resetting what's contained in the variable instruction.

Thank you in advance.

[Rena Berman]

(Answers Dev) Restored edit

[Rena Berman]

(Answers Dev) Restored edit

[Rena Berman]

(Answers Dev) Restored edit

Answer 1

[Guillaume]

My idea was to concatenate each line, but it doesn't seem possible without resetting

Well, you're doing assignment which indeed overwrites the data. There's no attempt at concatenating anything.

If you want to grow instruction through the recurence, you'll have to pass it to each recursion. An easy way

%in the function that starts the recursion:
instruction = hanoi(somed, o, i, t, []);  %start with empty instruction.

%your recurring function, now has 5 input arguments
function instruction = hanoi(d, origin, inter, target, instruction)
    if d == 1
        instruction = [instruction; sprintf('Move one disk from peg %s to peg %s', origin, target)];  %append a new row to instruction
    else
        ...
    end
end

Note that 2D char arrays require each row to be the same length, so you have to be careful that your sprintf always produces a vector the same size, regardless of the value of origin and target otherwise you'll get the error: "Dimensions of arrays being concatenated are not consistent."

Also, I presume that origin and target are supposed to be numeric, in which case %s is not the correct format specifier. See the sprintf documentation, it's %d or %u or %i for integers.

[Ryan Shishegar]

I understand and successfully implemented concatenation using the aforementioned method; however, the function is for an assignment and is supposed to only take three input arguments. I thought to assign instruction to an empty array at the beginning of the code but that obviously resets it on every recurence. I also tried using:

if exist('instruction','var') == 0
    instruction = [];
end

yet that did not seem to work either.

Also, all of the inputs except for the number of disks d are of type char so %s works in this case.

[Guillaume]

Of course, exist didn't work, it's not going to be looking at the workspace of other functions, only the local workspace.

If hanoi is supposed to have only 3 input arguments, then I would suspect you're supposed to implement the recursion in a subfunction:

function instruction = hanoi(d, origin, inter, target)
    instruction = hanoi_recurse(d, origin, inter, target, []);
end

function instruction = hanoi_recurse(d, origin, inter, target, instruction)
    if d == 1
        instruction = [instruction; sprintf('Move one disk from peg %s to peg %s', origin, target)];  %append a new row to instruction
    else
        ...
    end
end

Otherwise, the only other way is to make instruction non-local to the function or make it persistent, neither of which I will explain as they are absolutely not appropriate for this and would be teaching you extremely bad coding style.

[Ryan Shishegar]

I see. I ended up figuring out how to produce the output I wanted by assigning instruction initially and then appending it as the function recursed.

function instruction = hanoi(d, origin, inter, target)

if d == 1
    instruction = sprintf('Move one disk from peg %s to peg %s', origin, target);
else
    instruction = hanoi(d-1, origin, target, inter);
    instruction = [instruction; hanoi(1, origin, inter, target)];
    instruction = [instruction; hanoi(d-1, inter, origin, target)];
end
end

Answer 2

[Fangjun Jiang]

You have a recursive function which makes it a little complicated. But this modification seems to work.

%%
out=hanoi(3, 1, 2, 3)

function out=hanoi(d, origin, inter, target)
persistent instruction;
if d == 1
    instruction = [instruction, sprintf('Move one disk from peg %d to peg %d\n', origin, target)];
else
    hanoi(d-1, origin, target, inter);
    hanoi(1, origin, inter, target);
    hanoi(d-1, inter, origin, target);
end
    out=instruction;
end

out =
    'Move one disk from peg 1 to peg 3
     Move one disk from peg 1 to peg 2
     Move one disk from peg 3 to peg 2
     Move one disk from peg 1 to peg 3
     Move one disk from peg 2 to peg 1
     Move one disk from peg 2 to peg 3
     Move one disk from peg 1 to peg 3
     '