Vector/array of strings in MatLab

Question

I want to create a container (array, vector, ... I don't perfectly know the difference between these in Matlab) of strings. I want to use it for display purposes and printing to files mainly. In C++ I would have something like:

std::vector<std::string> str;
str.push_back( "Test1" );
str.push_back( "Test2" );
str.push_back( "Test3" );

for( unsigned int i = 0; i < str.size(); i++ )
{
    printf( "%s\n", str[i].c_str() );
}

My question being: How can I achieve something similar in Matlab, or is it even possible. I've tried a few things I've found here and there but nothing works. Here are the things I tried:

str = ['Test1' 'Test2' 'Test3'];

str = ['Test1', 'Test2', 'Test3'];

str = ['Test1'; 'Test2'; 'Test3'];

Nick · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-06 15:21:31Z

5

Use { and } (cell arrays), otherwise you'll just concatenate strings.

str = {'test1', 'test2', 'LongerTestString'};

for ii = 1:length(str);
    disp(str{ii});
end

edited Jun 6, 2013 at 15:21

answered Jun 6, 2013 at 15:15

Nick

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3 Comments

Gunther Struyf Over a year ago

strings are arrays of characters, a cell array can contain multiple arrays (of different length), thus it can contain multiple strings. A matrix can also contain strings (of the same length) in its rows/columns, but a cell array is much better suited imo.

Nick Over a year ago

@GuntherStruyf I have adapted my answer to illustrate that.

Gunther Struyf Over a year ago

yeah, the answer is fine, I just wanted to explain how the data is stored and what the options are when working with strings/characters.

m_power · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-06 15:35:41Z

0

A complement to Nick answer (because cellfun are fun :)):

str = {'test1', 'test2', 'LongerTestString'};
cellfun(@disp, str)

answered Jun 6, 2013 at 15:35

m_power

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1 Comment

Nick Over a year ago

I agree with you that they are fun, however they can be hard to debug.

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