MATLAB Programming Fundamentals - MathWorks

Update Your Code to Accept Strings

In R2016b, MATLAB introduced string arrays as a data type for text. In a future release,

all MathWorks products will be compatible with string arrays. Compatible means that if

you can specify text as a character vector or a cell array of character vectors, then you

also can specify it as a string array. Now you can adopt string arrays as a text data type in

your own code.

If you write code for other MATLAB users, then it is to your advantage to update your API

to accept string arrays, while maintaining backward compatibility with other text data

types. String adoption makes your code consistent with MathWorks products.

If your code has few dependencies, or if you are developing new code, then consider

using string arrays as your primary text data type for better performance. In that case,

best practice is to write or update your API to accept input arguments that are character

vectors, cell arrays of character vectors, or string arrays.

For the definitions of string array and other terms, see “Terminology for Character and

String Arrays” on page 6-80.

What Are String Arrays?

In MATLAB, you can store text data in two ways. One way is to use a character array,

which is a sequence of characters, just as a numeric array is a sequence of numbers. Or,

starting in R2016b, the other way is to store a sequence of characters in a string. You can

store multiple strings in a string array. For more information, see “Characters and

Strings”.

Recommended Approaches for String Adoption in Old APIs

When your code has many dependencies, and you must maintain backward compatibility,

follow these approaches for updating functions and classes to present a compatible API.

Functions

• Accept string arrays as input arguments.
  
  
  • If an input argument can be either a character vector or a cell array of character
    vectors, then update your code so that the argument also can be a string array. For
    example, consider a function that has an input argument you can specify as a
  
  
  
  

6 Characters and Strings