How to insert space between strings while doing strcat ?

for eg: a='hello'; b='world'; strcat(a,b);

strcat(a,b) gives 'helloworld' But I need it as 'hello world' How can I do that ?

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

Use the square bracket [] concatenation operator, and including a space variable is the easiest way:

a='hello'; 
b='world'; 
s = ' ';
Result = [a,s,b]

Result =
hello world

[Susan G]

Thank you Star Strider for giving an explanation that not only can be understood by the beginner user of MATLAB, but also one that is easily implemented across a variety of coding needs. I was having trouble creating a function handle when receiving a user entered equation in GUI (received through the get command) and then using that function handle to find a definite integral and other calculated values (i.e. Riemann sums). I used your answer to create an anonymous function and then used str2func to get a function handle that I could use.

Brilliant answer! Thank you!!!

[Star Strider]

As always, my pleasure!

I very much appreciate your compliment!

[Giuseppe Degan Di Dieco]

Thank you Star, you know, the most simple things are always underestimated, but actually the most difficult to found.

Best!

[Star Strider]

@Giuseppe Degan Di Dieco — My pleasure!

Answer 2

[Hugh]

I like to use the ASCII space character for this situation, code "32". for the OP: strcat(a,32,b) Extension: I would be inclined to also include a comma, code "44": strcat(a,44,32,b)

I look up the characters at: http://www.asciitable.com/

Answer 3

[Walter Roberson]

There is a trick to strcat. Notice from the documentation,

"For character array inputs, strcat removes trailing ASCII white-space characters: space, tab, vertical tab, newline, carriage return, and form feed. For cell and string array inputs, strcat does not remove trailing white space."

This means that if you have

strcat(a, ' ', b)

then the "trailing" space of the ' ' input will be removed, which will have the effect of running the entries together. The trick is to use

strcat(a, {' '}, b)

[Renwick Beattie]

A note to say that if you are using strcat on multiple line cell arrays then the {' '} needs replicated to the same size of cell array (not character array) - e.g. cellstr(repmat({' '},size(a))) if a is the cell array.

[Walter Roberson]

a = {'hello';'bye'};
b = {'dolly';'louis'};
>> strcat(a, {' '}, b)

ans =

  2×1 cell array

    {'hello dolly'}
    {'bye louis'  }

No need to replicate the {' '}

[Giuseppe Degan Di Dieco]

Hello everybody,

all your solutions are brilliant, and lead to the same result.

Thanks for your help and time!

Answer 4

[Stephen23]

The most efficient approach is to use sprintf:

>> a = 'hello';
>> b = 'world!';
>> sprintf('%s %s',a,b)
hello world!

Answer 5

[Larissa Bene]

strcat(string1, " "); strcat(string1, string2);

[Renwick Beattie]

I get the following error on the " character

Error: The input character is not valid in MATLAB

statements or expressions.

[Walter Roberson]

" is only valid in MATLAB from R2017a onwards. string() objects started existing in R2016b, but the input syntax of " was not enabled until R2017a.