alphanumericsPattern

Match letter and digit characters

Syntax

pat = alphanumericsPattern

pat = alphanumericsPattern(N)

pat = alphanumericsPattern(minCharacters,maxCharacters)

Description

pat = alphanumericsPattern creates a pattern that matches text composed of one or more of letter and digit characters. alphanumericsPattern accepts letter and digit characters as defined by the Unicode standard.

pat = alphanumericsPattern(N) matches exactly N letter or digit characters.

pat = alphanumericsPattern(minCharacters,maxCharacters) matches text composed of at least minCharacters and at most maxCharacters characters. inf is a valid value for maxCharacters. alphanumericsPattern is greedy and matches a number of letter and digit characters as close to maxCharacters as possible.

Examples

Extract Letters and Digits from Text

Use alphanumericPattern to extract letters and digits from text.

Create txt as a string. Create pat as a pattern object that matches letters and digits using alphanumericPattern. Extract the pattern from txt.

txt = "abc 123 =+-*/";
pat = alphanumericsPattern;
alphanumerics = extract(txt,pat)

alphanumerics = 2×1 string
    "abc"
    "123"

Match Set Number of Letters and Digits

Create txt as a string. Create pat as a pattern object that matches groups of three letters and numbers using alphanumericPattern. Extract the pattern from txt.

txt = "abcde123456_@#$";
pat = alphanumericsPattern(3);
alphanumerics = extract(txt,pat)

alphanumerics = 3×1 string
    "abc"
    "de1"
    "234"

Match Variably Sized Sets of Letters and Digits

Use alphanumericsPattern to match sets of letters and digits with a size that falls into specified range.

Create txt as a string. Create pat as a pattern object that matches groups of two to four letters and numbers using alphanumericPattern. Extract the pattern from txt.

txt = "12345ABCDE";
pat = alphanumericsPattern(2,4);

alphanumerics = extract(txt,pat)

alphanumerics = 3×1 string
    "1234"
    "5ABC"
    "DE"

Input Arguments

N — Exact number of characters to match

nonnegative integer scalar

Number of characters to match, specified as a nonnegative integer scalar.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

minCharacters — Minimum number of characters to match

nonnegative integer scalar

Minimum number of characters to match, specified as a nonnegative integer scalar.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

maxCharacters — Maximum number of characters to match

nonnegative integer scalar

Maximum number of characters to match, specified as a nonnegative integer scalar.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

Output Arguments

pat — Pattern expression

pattern object

Pattern expression, returned as a pattern object.

Extended Capabilities

Thread-Based Environment
Run code in the background using MATLAB® backgroundPool or accelerate code with Parallel Computing Toolbox™ ThreadPool.

Version History

Introduced in R2020b