Strings
MATLAB Strings
A string is an array of characters
n
Selim Aksoy
Bilkent University
Department of Computer Engineering
saksoy@cs.bilkent.edu.tr
s = 'abc'
is equivalent to s = [ 'a' 'b' 'c' ]
All operations that apply to vectors and
arrays can be used together with
strings as well
n
n
n
s(1) 'a'
s( [ 1 2 ] ) = 'XX' s = 'XXc'
s(end) 'c'
Fall 2004
String Conversion
n
double( 'abc xyz' )
ans =
97 98 99 32 120 121 122
double( 'ABC XYZ' )
ans =
65 66 67 32 88 89 90
char( [ 72 101 108 108 111 33 ] )
ans =
Hello!
Fall 2004
CS 111
n
n
String Tests
n
Fall 2004
ischar ( 'CS 111' )
ans =
1
isletter( 'CS 111' )
ans =
1
1
0
0
Fall 2004
isspace( 'CS 111' )
ans =
0
0
1
0
0
CS 111
'a' < 'e'
ans =
1
Comparing two strings character by character
isspace() : returns 1 for whitespace (blank, tab, new
line)
n
CS 111
Comparing two characters
isletter() : returns 1 for letters of the alphabet
n
s = [ 'my first string'; 'my second string' ]
??? Error
s = char( 'my first string', 'my second string' )
s=
char function
my first string
automatically
my second string
pads strings
size(s) [ 2 16 ]
size( deblank( s(1,:) ) ) [ 1 15 ]
String Comparison
ischar() : returns 1 for a character array
n
2-D character arrays
Conversion of numerical arrays to strings
n
Character Arrays
Conversion of strings to numerical arrays
n
CS 111
Fall 2004
'fate' == 'cake'
ans =
0
1
0
'fate' > 'cake'
ans =
1
0
1
0
CS 111
String Comparison
n
strcmp() : returns 1 if two strings are
identical
n
n
String Case Conversion
n
a = 'Bilkent';
strcmp( a, 'Bilkent' )
ans =
1
strcmp( 'Hello', 'hello' )
ans =
0
Fall 2004
strcmpi( 'Hello', 'hello' )
ans =
1
CS 111
Searching in Strings
Fall 2004
CS 111
Fall 2004
s1 = 'This is a good example';
s2 = strrep( s1, 'good', 'great' )
s2 =
This is a great example
CS 111
[ token, remainder ] = strtok( 'This is a test!', ' ' )
token =
This
remainder =
is a test!
remainder = 'This is a test!';
while ( any( remainder ) ),
[ word, remainder ] = strtok( remainder );
disp( word );
end
CS 111
10
Recall num2str() for numeric-to-string
conversion
n
11
str = [ 'Plot for x = ' num2str( 10.3 ) ]
str =
Plot for x = 10.3
str2num() : converts strings containing
numbers to numeric form
n
Fall 2004
String Conversion
strrep() : replaces one string with
another
n
CS 111
strtok() : finds a token in a string
n
test = 'This is a test!';
pos = findstr( test, 'is' )
pos =
3 6
pos = findstr( test, ' ' )
pos =
5
8 10
Replacing in Strings
n
Fall 2004
a = lower( 'This is test 1!' )
a=
this is test 1!
Searching in Strings
findstr() : finds one string within
another one
n
a = upper( 'This is test 1!' )
a=
THIS IS TEST 1!
Uppercase-to-lowercase
strcmpi() : returns 1 if two strings are
identical ignoring case
n
Lowercase-to-uppercase
Fall 2004
x = str2num( '3.1415' )
x=
3.1415
CS 111
12
String Conversion
n
String Comparison
sprintf() is identical to fprintf() but
output is a string
n
Example: Write a function that takes two
strings and returns
n
str = sprintf( 'Plot for angle = %0.4f', pi )
str =
Plot for angle = 3.1416
n
n
Pseudocode:
n
n
n
Fall 2004
CS 111
13
-1 if the first string is lexicographically less than
the second
0 if they are equal
+1 if the first string is lexicographically greater
than the second
Fall 2004
Get input strings
Pad strings to equal length
Compare characters from beginning to end and
find the first difference
Return a value depending on the first distance
CS 111
14
String Comparison
function result = c_strcmp(str1,str2)
%C_STRCMP Compare strings like C function "strcmp"
% Function C_STRCMP compares two strings, and returns
% a -1 of str1 < str2, a 0 if str1 == str2, and a
% +1 if str1 > str2.
%
%
%
%
Record of revisions:
Date
Programmer
====
==========
10/18/98
S. J. Chapman
Description of change
=====================
Original code
% Check to see if the arguments are strings
if ~(isstr(str1) & isstr(str2))
error('Both str1 and str2 must both be strings!')
else
% Pad strings
strings = strvcat(str1,str2) ;
% Compare strings
diff = strings( 1,:) ~= strings( 2,:);
if sum(diff) == 0
% Strings match, so return a zero!
result = 0;
else
% Find first difference between strings
ival = find(diff);
if strings(1,ival(1)) > strings(2,ival( 1))
result = 1;
else
result = -1;
end
end
end
Fall 2004
CS 111
15
