The CHAR function produces a character representation of a numeric matrix. Essentially, the CHAR function is equivalent to applying a w.d format to each element of a numeric matrix.

The arguments to the CHAR function are as follows:

The CHAR function takes a numeric matrix as an argument and, optionally, a field width and a number of decimal positions . The CHAR function produces a character matrix with the same dimensions as the argument matrix, and with elements that are character representations of the corresponding numeric elements.

If the w argument is not supplied, the system default field width is used. If the d argument is not supplied, the best representation is used. See also the description of the NUM function, which converts a character matrix into a numeric matrix.

For example, the following statements produce the output shown in Figure 23.59:

a = {-1.1 0 3.1415 4};
reset print;       /* display values and type of matrices */
m = char(a, 4, 1);