why am I getting 'ugly' output?

combinations_available=input(['Enter the number associated with the combination of salts available. Enter 0 if none of the combinations are available.'...
      '\n1:Two of these chlorides      1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl(sodium chloride)   5) KCl(potassium chloride) '... 
     '\n2:ZnBr2(zinc bromide)       &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride   4) NaCl(sodium chloride)   5) KCl(potassium chloride)'...
    '\n3:NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)   &  1) CH3CO2K(potassium acetat)   2) ZnSO4(zink sulphate)       3) HCOONa(Sodium formate)   4) HCOOK(potassium formate)'...
    '\n4:ZnBr2(zinc bromide)        &  1) CH3CO2K(potassium acetate)  2) ZnSO4(zink sulphate)       3) HCOONa(sodium formate)   4) HCOOK(potassium formate)'...
    '\n5:CH3CO2K(potassium acetate) &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl(sodium chloride)  5) KCl(potassium chloride)'...
    '\n6:CH3CO2K(potassium acetate) &  1) ZnSO4(zinc sulphate)        2) HCOONa(sodium formate)     3) HCOOK(potassium formate)'...
    '\n7:ZnSO4(zinc sulphate)       &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl(sodium chloride)  5) KCl(potassium chloride)'...
    '\n8:ZnSO4(zinc sulphate)       &  1) HCOONa(sodium formate)      2) HCOOK(potassium formate)'...
    '\n9:HCOONa(sodium formate)     &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl(sodium chloride)  5) KCl,(potassium chloride)'...
    '\n10:HCOOK(potassium formate)  &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl                   5) KCl'...
    '\n11:HCOONa                    &  1) HCOOK. ']);

Above is how it looks where I code but the output is something like this: The numbers dont come right below one another..:

Enter the number associated with the combination of salts available. Enter 0 if none of the combinations are available.

1:Two of these chlorides 1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride) 2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride) 3) CaCl2(calcium chloride) 4) NaCl(sodium chloride) 5) KCl(potassium chloride)

2:ZnBr2(zinc bromide) & 1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride) 2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride) 3) CaCl2(calcium chloride 4) NaCl(sodium chloride) 5) KCl(potassium chloride)

Answer 1

[Rik]

At this point you should consider creating a small GUI for your input selection. But for your question at hand: you forgot to allign the start of the rows, so you missed the fact that they were actually shifted. The smart allign button in the editor and a few spaces gets you this:

combinations_available=input(['Enter the number associated with the combination of salts available. Enter 0 if none of the combinations are available.'...
    '\n1:Two of these chlorides        1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl(sodium chloride)   5) KCl(potassium chloride) '...
    '\n2:ZnBr2(zinc bromide)        &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride   4) NaCl(sodium chloride)   5) KCl(potassium chloride)'...
    '\n3:NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)   &  1) CH3CO2K(potassium acetat)   2) ZnSO4(zink sulphate)       3) HCOONa(Sodium formate)   4) HCOOK(potassium formate)'...
    '\n4:ZnBr2(zinc bromide)        &  1) CH3CO2K(potassium acetate)  2) ZnSO4(zink sulphate)       3) HCOONa(sodium formate)   4) HCOOK(potassium formate)'...
    '\n5:CH3CO2K(potassium acetate) &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl(sodium chloride)  5) KCl(potassium chloride)'...
    '\n6:CH3CO2K(potassium acetate) &  1) ZnSO4(zinc sulphate)        2) HCOONa(sodium formate)     3) HCOOK(potassium formate)'...
    '\n7:ZnSO4(zinc sulphate)       &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl(sodium chloride)  5) KCl(potassium chloride)'...
    '\n8:ZnSO4(zinc sulphate)       &  1) HCOONa(sodium formate)      2) HCOOK(potassium formate)'...
    '\n9:HCOONa(sodium formate)     &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl(sodium chloride)  5) KCl,(potassium chloride)'...
    '\n10:HCOOK(potassium formate)  &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl                   5) KCl'...
    '\n11:HCOONa                    &  1) HCOOK. ']);

With the result in the command prompt:

Enter the number associated with the combination of salts available. Enter 0 if none of the combinations are available.
1:Two of these chlorides        1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl(sodium chloride)   5) KCl(potassium chloride) 
2:ZnBr2(zinc bromide)        &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride   4) NaCl(sodium chloride)   5) KCl(potassium chloride)
3:NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)   &  1) CH3CO2K(potassium acetat)   2) ZnSO4(zink sulphate)       3) HCOONa(Sodium formate)   4) HCOOK(potassium formate)
4:ZnBr2(zinc bromide)        &  1) CH3CO2K(potassium acetate)  2) ZnSO4(zink sulphate)       3) HCOONa(sodium formate)   4) HCOOK(potassium formate)
5:CH3CO2K(potassium acetate) &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl(sodium chloride)  5) KCl(potassium chloride)
6:CH3CO2K(potassium acetate) &  1) ZnSO4(zinc sulphate)        2) HCOONa(sodium formate)     3) HCOOK(potassium formate)
7:ZnSO4(zinc sulphate)       &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl(sodium chloride)  5) KCl(potassium chloride)
8:ZnSO4(zinc sulphate)       &  1) HCOONa(sodium formate)      2) HCOOK(potassium formate)
9:HCOONa(sodium formate)     &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl(sodium chloride)  5) KCl,(potassium chloride)
10:HCOOK(potassium formate)  &  1) NH4Cl(ammonium chloride)    2) MgCl2(magnesium chloride)  3) CaCl2(calcium chloride)  4) NaCl                   5) KCl
11:HCOONa                    &  1) HCOOK. 

[Steven Lord]

I agree that this would probably look nicer as some sort of UI, but I'm not sure the poster needs to create their own GUI for this. I suspect using a listdlg or two would be sufficient.

[Walter Roberson]

questdlg() or menu()

[Rik]

I'm not suggesting they need to go overboard. It already works, so before taking the step to a 'real' GUI, something simple like listdlg, questdlg, menu etc would also improve ease of use (and editing). If a ' prettier' solution is needed, things can still be relatively simple, like this.

[Muazma Ali]

I must say I didnt understand the answers here. My point was a little unclear maybe ..my code is running n actually the output doesnt look like the one shown here . In the second version of my question I had shown how it looks like in the attached png file, will do it again. Since I have writen all the if blocks I dont want to change the code because the rest is dependent on this one. (Wil come back with the right output soon)

[Steven Lord]

Just because you have the two literal characters \ and n in that order in a char vector or string array, MATLAB won't automatically treat those as a newline. You could tell MATLAB to include the newline character by using the newline function (introduced in R2016b) or using sprintf (introduced a long time ago) or compose (also introduced in R2016b).

[Rik]

The problem was here:

combinations_available=input(['Enter the number associated with the combination of salts available. Enter 0 if none of the combinations are available.'...
      '\n1:Two of these chl
%  |^^
     '\n2:ZnBr2(zinc bromid
%  |^
    '\n3:NH4
%  |

You don't have to change you code, just remove the three spaces indicated with ^ above. Then you will see why you're allignment was incorrect. I corrected it in the code block in my answer.