Search for individual characters within string
4 views (last 30 days)
Show older comments
Say I have:
cell_array={'AX','BY'};
It is easy to manipulate the terms 'AX' and 'BY' (to isolate, sort, identify etc.), but I cannot seem to find an approach to search for the individual components within 'AX' or 'BY'.
I would like to consider each character in the string individually, i.e. 'A' or 'X' in 'AX'. Basically, I want to be able to search for 'A' or 'X' in 'AX' without having to modify 'AX'.
Is that possible?
0 Comments
Accepted Answer
per isakson
on 17 Jun 2012
Run this
cell_array = {'AX'; 'BY'; 'CXXYXXYYYX'; 'DYXZZZXXYXZ'};
cac = cellfun( @(c) strfind( cell_array, c ), {'A','Y'}, 'uni', false );
cac{2}
cac{2}{3}
ans =
[]
[ 2]
[1x4 double]
[1x2 double]
ans =
4 7 8 9
>>
Which says that the letter, "Y", exists in the second, third and forth string. In the third string "Y" appears in position 4,7,8 and 9.
0 Comments
More Answers (2)
Image Analyst
on 17 Jun 2012
Try to adapt this demo code:
% Construct a sample cell array.
cell_array={'AX'; 'BY'; 'CXXYXXYYYX'; 'DYXZZZXXYXZ'};
% Now find X and Y locations for each row.
for k = 1 : size(cell_array, 1)
% For each row in the cell array...
% Get the string inside the cell.
cellContents = cell_array{k}
% Find arrays giving the indexes of X and Y.
xIndexes = strfind(cellContents, 'X')
yIndexes = strfind(cellContents, 'Y')
end
0 Comments
Rui Zhao
on 17 Jun 2012
For searching for 'x' in 'AX', you can search the uppercase of input via doing this:
char(double('x') - 32); % translate the 'x' into ASCII number and subtract 32 to get uppercase 'X'.
For searching lowercase, vice versa. char(double('X') + 32);
2 Comments
Image Analyst
on 17 Jun 2012
Isn't the position of the first character always 1 and the position of the second character always 2?
See Also
Categories
Find more on Characters and Strings in Help Center and File Exchange
Community Treasure Hunt
Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!
Start Hunting!