fprintf with two variables goes completely through the first variable instead of alternating

Here's my code, it's supposed to print the row and column location of the values of matrix x greater than 10.

x=[1 10 42 6
    5 8 78 23
    56 45 9 13
    23 22 8 9];
[xgt10row,xgt10col]=find(x>10)
disp('element location of values of x greater than 10')
fprintf('row %d col %d \n',xgt10row,xgt10col)

it outputs

element location of values of x greater than 10

row 3 col 4

row 3 col 4

row 1 col 2

row 2 col 3

row 1 col 1

row 2 col 2

row 3 col 3

row 4 col 4

which is basically going through the entirety of xgt10row before moving on to xgt10col.

I thought it would pick the first element of xgt10row, then the first element of xgt10col, etc.

My solution was to instead do

fprintf('row %d col %d \n',[xgt10row';xgt10col'])

which outputs

element location of values of x greater than 10

row 3 col 1

row 4 col 1

row 3 col 2

row 4 col 2

row 1 col 3

row 2 col 3

row 2 col 4

row 3 col 4

which is correct.

Is there a reason it has to be this way and is there a neater way to do it?

[Stephen23]

"Is there a reason it has to be this way..."

The FPRINTF documentation states that it "applies the formatSpec to all elements of arrays A1,...An in column order" (bold added). In other words, it processes the array content in the order that they are stored in memory. When it runs out of elements of the 1st input array then it moves on to the 2nd input array, and so on.

"...and is there a neater way to do it?"

Transpose once rather than twice:

x = [1,10,42,6;5,8,78,23;56,45,9,13;23,22,8,9];
[xgt10row,xgt10col] = find(x>10);
fprintf('row %d col %d \n',[xgt10row,xgt10col].')

row 3 col 1 
row 4 col 1 
row 3 col 2 
row 4 col 2 
row 1 col 3 
row 2 col 3 
row 2 col 4 
row 3 col 4 

Answer 1

[VBBV]

x=[1 10 42 6
    5 8 78 23
    56 45 9 13
    23 22 8 9]

x = 4×4

1 10 42 6 5 8 78 23 56 45 9 13 23 22 8 9

[xgt10row,xgt10col]=find(x>10)

xgt10row = 8×1

3 4 3 4 1 2 2 3

xgt10col = 8×1

1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4

disp('element location of values of x greater than 10')

element location of values of x greater than 10

for k = 1:length(xgt10col)
   fprintf('row %d col %d \n',xgt10row(k), xgt10col(k))
end

row 3 col 1 
row 4 col 1 
row 3 col 2 
row 4 col 2 
row 1 col 3 
row 2 col 3 
row 2 col 4 
row 3 col 4 

[VBBV]

try using a for loop

[VBBV]

x=[1 10 42 6
    5 8 78 23
    56 45 9 13
    23 22 8 9];
[xgt10row,xgt10col]=find(x>10);
disp('element location of values of x greater than 10')

element location of values of x greater than 10

%without using for loop
fprintf('row %d col %d \n',[xgt10row.'; xgt10col.'])

row 3 col 1 
row 4 col 1 
row 3 col 2 
row 4 col 2 
row 1 col 3 
row 2 col 3 
row 2 col 4 
row 3 col 4