A better alternative to MATLAB's disp()

gistfile1.matlab

function pr(varargin)
if nargin == 0, return, end % stop if no arguments
% check if the first argument is a string with output format:
if ischar(varargin{1}) && ~isempty(regexp(varargin{1},'\%[^\s]','ONCE'))
  cmd = 'sprintf(varargin{1}';
  for i=2:nargin,
    if iscell(varargin{i}),
      % if an argument is a cell array, then consider it as collected parameters:
      for j=1:length(varargin{i})
        cmd = sprintf('%s, varargin{%d}{%d}', cmd, i, j);
      end
    else
      cmd = sprintf('%s, varargin{%d}', cmd, i);
    end
  end
  if nargout,
    % todo: add a return value later
  else
    disp(eval(strcat(cmd, ');')));
  end
else % simply display all arguments one-by-one:
  for i=1:nargin, disp(varargin{i}), end
end

% --- examples ----------------------------------------------------------

% >> pr(1,2,3)
%      1
% 
%      2
% 
%      3
% 
% >> pr('%f,',1,2,3)
% 1.000000,2.000000,3.000000,
% 
% >> pr('total core power [MWth] = ',P_core)
% total core power [MWth] = 
%    600
% 
% >> pr('total core power = %.1f MWth',P_core)
% total core power = 600.0 MWth