Problem 2602. Did you say please? - Find one string within another without strfind or regexp/regexpi

Created by Rahul K

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For a given string sentence, determine if the string word 'please' is present or not. If so, return the string 'OK', else return '...'. The function should not be case sensitive. Please do not use the strfind or regexp/regexpi functions in your solution.

Example:

reply = please('Help me with my homework!')
reply = '...'

reply = please('Please help me with my homework')
reply = 'OK'

Solve

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242 Solutions
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Last Solution submitted on Jul 18, 2025

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3 Comments

Guillaume on 24 Sep 2014

See the test suite of http://www.mathworks.co.uk/matlabcentral/cody/problems/2513 for an example of how to make sure regexp and other functions are not used.

Rahul K on 24 Sep 2014

Thanks for the tip, modified the test suite and updated the problem description to include regexpi in the list of illegal functions.

Rahul K on 26 Sep 2014

Modified the test suite again, sorry if it affects your solution.

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