How to preserve subscript or superscript formatting in a text string?

I'm reading out some text strings (units) from some Excel files:

filename = 'AAA.xlsx';
opt = detectImportOptions(filename);
opt.VariableUnitsRange = '2:2';      % 2nd row
T1 = readtable(filename, opt);

The problem is that I would have a unit like this: mol kg^-1, and after it is read out, the superscript formatting of "-1" is lost.

Is there an option so that I could preserve the superscript formatting?

Thanks.

[Ricardo Campos]

Hi

It might come a little late, but I had the same problem while working on a project. For all I could find, MATLAB does not support subscript nor superscript directly. However I was able to find some solutions (this in MATLAB2024a):

i. Unicode Characters: Unicode has subscript and superscript characters encoded. Using a table, or ChatGPT, you can get them and MATLAB has some suport (although limited) for them. Use this link for example: https://www.codetable.net/unicodecharacters?page=28. You can also ask ChatGPT. Here is an example:

fprintf('x%c + y%c = z%c\n', char(178), char(8322), char(179));

x² + y₂ = z³

In my command window, the subscript was a little less perceptible, but i don't find it much of a problem.

ii. HTML: This is the solution I ended up implementing, since I wanted to display information in a figure. Here is a simplified version of how i did it:

% Define variables (from an Exel file in your case)
A='n+1';
B='n';
C='2';

% Create basic text. '%s' allows for sprintf to change the string later 
html_text="<p>Equation:<br> z<sub>%s</sub> = z<sub>%s</sub> + y<sup>%s</sup></p>";

% Replace '%s' for variable values
html_text1=sprintf(html_text,A,B,C);

% Create basic figure
Fig=uifigure('Color','w','Position',[200 100 500 500]);
h = uihtml(Fig,Position=[50 0 500 500]);

% Setting the HTML source to the string
h.HTMLSource=html_text1;

As you can imagine, the HTML approach allows for better formatting, going much further than just subscripts and superscripts (given that you know HTML), but it requires you to create a figure to display the info.

I hope I was of help.

Good Luck, and Happy coding :)

Answer 1

[George Abrahams]

Hi @Leon,

For text-based graphics objects, such as title or xlabel, MATLAB uses the following syntax for superscripts and subscripts:

title('^{superscript} normal _{subscript}')

For more complex text formats, e.g., including greek letters, mathematical symbols, and fractions, the LaTeX interpreter can be used. The above would instead become:

title('$^{superscript} normal _{subscript}$', 'Interpreter', 'latex')

This syntax will not, however, be displayed in the Variables Editor, Command Window, etc. - only in figures.

If you want to automate this, you could convert from Excel to MATLAB syntax with either a pattern or regex.