Convert string to cell array

How to convert string

 a b 3

into cell array {'a' 'b' 3}

Answer 1

[Geoff Hayes]

Artyom - try using textscan to read the data from the string. Something like

 str = 'a b 3';
 Z = textscan(str,'%s','Delimiter',' ')';

 Z{:}'

 ans = 

    'a'    'b'    '3'

We use the fact that each character in he input string, str, is separated by a space. The space then acts as the delimiter between each character which we can use to separate each into its own string.

Note that Z is a 3x1 cell array.

Try the above and see what happens!

[Image Analyst]

I think he wanted the 3 to be a number, if you look at his desired output. But your method is more flexible than mine. Mine did exactly what he asked but we know that people usually come back and say "but it did not work for the string 'a b 3 xyz 2.718281828'. Yours should handle that, if you can convert numbers from char to double.

[Geoff Hayes]

You're right - I hadn't caught that! I just assumed that since the input was a string, then the output would be the same.

Answer 2

[CHADCHAVAN RATTANASOPA]

cellstr()

[Souarv De]

Good.

[Image Analyst]

@Souarv De, why "Good"? This answer is wrong. Just look

 str = 'a b 3';
 ca = cellstr(str) % CHADCHAVIN's wrong answer
 Z = textscan(str, '%s', 'Delimiter',' ')' % Geoff's answer
 celldisp(Z)

ca =

1×1 cell array

{'a b 3'}

Z =

1×1 cell array

{3×1 cell}

Z{1}{1} =

a

Z{1}{2} =

b

Z{1}{3} =

3

CHADCHAVIN's answer does not give a cell array with three cells (each one containing a substring). It gives one cell (not 3) and it simply put the string into the one cell. Not what was asked for.

It must have been accepted by mistake so I'm going to unaccept it and accept Geoff's instead.

Answer 3

[Image Analyst]

Try this:

str = 'a b 3'
str(str==' ') = []; % Remove spaces.
ca = {str(1),str(2),str(3)} % Create the cell array.
celldisp(ca); % Display its values in the command window.

Answer 4

[Martin Vatshelle]

If you have a mix of text and numbers textscan as suggested by Geoff is a good solution.

If you only have text strsplit does exactly what you want and I feel that is a bit simpler to use.

strsplit('ab cd ef')

ans =

1×3 cell array

'ab'    'cd'    'ef'
    

You can specify the delimiter if it is not spaces that are your delimiters.

If you however want to split a string into single characters you could use cellstr

s = 'ab cd ef';
cellstr(s(:))' %here I transposed at the end for readability, you can skip that

ans =

1×8 cell array

'a'    'b'    ''    'c'    'd'    ''    'e'    'f'