How do I draw an en dash in MATLAB using the TeX interpreter?

I am trying to write text within a figure, and I need to be able to differentiate between a hyphen and an en dash (hyphen being slightly shorter).

Answer 1

[Doug Hull]

You can use the ASCII codes for the specific type of dash you would like to display in the call to the TEXT function. For example,

plot(1:10);  % This will draw a hyphen 
h1 = text(2,2,['Test-example']);   % This will draw an en dash 
h1 = text(2,4,['Test' char(8211) 'example']);   % This will draw an em dash 
h1 = text(2,6,['Test' char(8212) 'example']);

Please refer to the following page to see numeric codes for the common dashes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash

[Nathan]

Doug,

Thanks for pointing this method out. I'm using R2014a on a mac workbook pro running 10.9.5. This method does not work in that it fails to produce the desired en dash. It also fails to produce an error code as well. Here is the command I would like to add an en dash to:

text(0.265,0.25,'\leftarrow NS XCPC','FontSize',28)

My goal is to produce an en dash between the N and S.

I also tried Andrew Newell's method:

h1 = text(2,4,'en--dash','Interpreter','latex');

although, this method works just fine, the latex interpreter does not know how to process the

\leftarrow

MatLab command.

Any suggestions on how to accomplish both activities (en dash and left arrow) at the same time?

[Walter Roberson]

I just tried in R2014a on MacBook Pro with El Capitan.

text(2,3,'\leftarrow N--S XCPC')

looks to work for me.

Answer 2

[Andrew Newell]

If you use the latex interpreter, it's really simple:

plot(1:10);
h1 = text(2,2,'Hy-phen','Interpreter','latex'); 
h1 = text(2,4,'en--dash','Interpreter','latex');
h1 = text(2,6,'em---dash','Interpreter','latex');