Printing a variable within an input command

I am trying to use an input command to tell a specific player that it is there turn to make a move.

My code looks like this:

move = input(['Player ' current_player ', choose column 1-7 to drop a chip: ']);

The output looks like this:

Player , choose column 1-7 to drop a chip:

Can someone help me get this working correctly?

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

Assuming ‘current_player’ is a character array or string variable:

move = input(sprintf('Player %s, choose column 1-7 to drop a chip: ', current_player));

Otherwise, choose the appropriate format descriptor in formatSpec for the ‘current_player’ variable class.

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

I think current_player is an integer, and that's why when you create a string like this:

['Player ' current_player ', choose column 1-7 to drop a chip: ']

it's making non-printable characters. Like if current_player was some number less than ASCII 32. You need to use %d or num2str

move = input(sprintf('Player %s, choose column 1-7 to drop a chip: ', current_player));

Alternatively if you don't like sprintf() for some reason, you can use brackets, quotes, and num2str() to create a character array

userPrompt = ['Player ', num2str(current_player), ' choose column 1-7 to drop a chip: '];
move = input(userPrompt);