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+## Copyright (C) 2002 Rolf Fabian <fabian@tu-cottbus.de>
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
+## any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the Free
+## Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
+## 02110-1301, USA.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {@var{s} =} mat2str (@var{x}, @var{n})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {@var{s} =} mat2str (@dots{}, 'class')
+##
+## Format real/complex numerial matrices as strings. This function
+## returns values that are suitable for the use of the @code{eval}
+## function.
+##
+## The precision of the values is given by @var{n}. If @var{n} is a
+## scalar then both real and imaginary parts of the matrix are printed
+## to the same precision. Otherwise @code{@var{n} (1)} defines the
+## precision of the real part and @code{@var{n} (2)} defines the
+## precision of the imaginary part. The default for @var{n} is 17.
+##
+## If the argument 'class' is given, then the class of @var{x} is
+## included in the string in such a way that the eval will result in the
+## construction of a matrix of the same class.
+##
+## @example
+## @group
+##    mat2str( [ -1/3 + i/7; 1/3 - i/7 ], [4 2] )
+##    @result{} '[-0.3333+0.14i;0.3333-0.14i]'
+##    mat2str( [ -1/3 +i/7; 1/3 -i/7 ], [4 2] )
+##    @result{} '[-0.3333+0i,0+0.14i;0.3333+0i,-0-0.14i]'
+##    mat2str( int16([1 -1]), 'class')
+##    @result{} 'int16([1,-1])'
+## @end group
+## @end example
+##
+## @seealso{sprintf, int2str}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+function s = mat2str(x,n,cls)
+
+  if (nargin < 2 || isempty(n))
+    n = 17;		   # default precision
+  endif
+
+  if (nargin < 3)
+    if (ischar(n))
+      cls = n;
+      n = 17;
+    else
+      cls = '';
+    endif
+  endif
+
+  if (nargin < 1 || nargin > 3 || ischar(x) || isstruct(x) ||
+     ischar(n) || isstruct(n) || isstruct(cls))
+    usage ("mat2str");
+  endif
+  
+  if (ndims (x) > 2)
+    error ("mat2str: x must be two dimensional");
+  endif
+
+  if (!(COMPLEX = is_complex(x)))
+    FMT = sprintf("%%.%dg", n(1));
+  else
+    if (length(n) == 1 )
+      n = [n, n];
+    endif
+    FMT = sprintf("%%.%dg%%+.%dgi", n(1), n(2));
+  endif
+
+  [nr, nc] = size(x);
+
+  if (nr*nc == 0)         # empty .. only print brackets
+    s = "[]";
+  elseif (nr*nc == 1)	# scalar x .. don't print brackets
+    if (!COMPLEX)
+      s = sprintf( FMT, x );
+    else
+      s = sprintf( FMT, real(x), imag(x) );
+    endif
+  else			# non-scalar x .. print brackets
+    FMT = [FMT, ','];
+    if (!COMPLEX)
+      s = sprintf( FMT, x.' );
+    else
+      x = x.';
+      s = sprintf( FMT, [ real(x(:))'; imag(x(:))' ] );
+    endif
+
+    s = ["[", s];
+    s (length(s)) = "]";
+    IND = find(s == ",");
+    s (IND(nc:nc:length(IND)) ) = ";";
+  endif
+
+  if (strcmp ("class", cls))
+    s = [class(x), "(", s, ")"]
+  endif
+endfunction