Programming

Function Summary

MATLAB provides these functions for working with character arrays:

• Functions to Create Character Arrays
• Functions to Modify Character Arrays
• Functions to Read and Operate on Character Arrays
• Functions to Search or Compare Character Arrays
• Functions to Determine Data Type or Content
• Functions to Convert Between Numeric and String Data Types
• Functions to Work with Cell Arrays of Strings as Sets
  
  

  Functions to Create Character Arrays

  Function	Description
  'str'	Create the string specified between quotes.
  blanks	Create a string of blanks.
  sprintf	Write formatted data to a string.
  strcat	Concatenate strings.
  strvcat	Concatenate strings vertically.

  
  
  

  Functions to Modify Character Arrays

  Function	Description
  deblank	Remove trailing blanks.
  lower	Make all letters lowercase.
  sort	Sort elements in ascending or descending order.
  strjust	Justify a string.
  strrep	Replace one string with another.
  strtrim	Remove leading and trailing white space.
  upper	Make all letters uppercase.

  
  
  

  Functions to Read and Operate on Character Arrays

  Function	Description
  eval	Execute a string with MATLAB expression.
  sscanf	Read a string under format control.

  
  
  

  Functions to Search or Compare Character Arrays

  Function	Description
  findstr	Find one string within another.
  strcmp	Compare strings.
  strcmpi	Compare strings, ignoring case.
  strmatch	Find matches for a string.
  strncmp	Compare the first N characters of strings.
  strncmpi	Compare the first N characters, ignoring case.
  strtok	Find a token in a string.

  
  
  

  Functions to Determine Data Type or Content

  Function	Description
  iscellstr	Return true for a cell array of strings.
  ischar	Return true for a character array.
  isletter	Return true for letters of the alphabet.
  isstrprop	Determine if a string is of the specified category.
  isspace	Return true for white-space characters.

  
  
  

  Functions to Convert Between Numeric and String Data Types  

  Function	Description
  char	Convert to a character or string.
  cellstr	Convert a character array to a cell array of strings.
  double	Convert a string to numeric codes.
  int2str	Convert an integer to a string.
  mat2str	Convert a matrix to an eval'able string.
  num2str	Convert a number to a string.
  str2num	Convert a string to a number.
  str2double	Convert a string to a double-precision value.

  
  
  

  Functions to Work with Cell Arrays of Strings as Sets

  Function	Description
  intersect	Set the intersection of two vectors.
  ismember	Detect members of a set.
  setdiff	Return the set difference of two vectors.
  setxor	Set the exclusive OR of two vectors.
  union	Set the union of two vectors.
  unique	Set the unique elements of a vector.

Converting from String to Numeric

Dates and Times

© 1994-2005 The MathWorks, Inc.