Back to old display format in Matlab R2016b

Question

In Matlab R2016b, displaying variables of certain data types shows information about the type. This happens when the variable is displayed by typing it without a final semicolon (it doesn't happen when using the disp function).

Compare for example:

• Matlab R2015b (old format: displays just the data):

  >> x = [10 20 30]
  x =
      10    20    30
  >> x = {10 20 30}
  x = 
      [10]    [20]    [30]
  >> x = [false false true]
  x =
       0     0     1
  

• Matlab R2016b (new format: includes type):

  >> x = [10 20 30]
  x =
      10    20    30
  >> x = {10 20 30}
  x =
    1×3 cell array
      [10]    [20]    [30]
  >> x = [false false true]
  x =
    1×3 logical array
     0   0   1
  

As you see, there's an extra line in R2016b telling the type. Apparently this happens for any type that is not double or char.

Is there some setting in R2016b to go back to the old behaviour?

Answer 1

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a preference for changing that behavior. There is (as always) a bit of a hacky workaround.

When you omit a semi-colon from a line, it's not disp that is called but rather display. R2016b has apparently modified the display method for a cell datatype to display some type information along with the values themselves.

Thankfully we can overload that display method with something that looks a little bit more like the display of previous releases.

We can create a @cell folder (anywhere on our path) and place a file called display.m inside.

@cell/display.m

function display(obj)
    % Overloaded display function for grumpy old men

    if strcmpi(get(0, 'FormatSpacing'), 'loose')
        fprintf('\n%s =\n\n', inputname(1))
    else
        fprintf('%s =\n', inputname(1))
    end
    disp(obj);
end

Now, whenever a cell array is displayed due lack of a trailing semi-colon, it will not include any type information.

>> c = {'a', 'b'}

c =

    'a'    'b'

Unfortunately, there are other datatypes (such as logical) that also display the type information so you'd have to overload the display method for each of these classes.