matlab.lang.makeValidName

Construct valid MATLAB identifiers from input strings

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Syntax

  • N = matlab.lang.makeValidName(S)
    example
  • N = matlab.lang.makeValidName(S,Name,Value)
    example
  • [N, modified] = matlab.lang.makeValidName(___)
    example

Description

example

N = matlab.lang.makeValidName(S) constructs valid MATLAB® identifiers, N, from input character vectors, S. The makeValidName function does not guarantee the strings in N are unique.

A valid MATLAB identifier is a character vector of alphanumerics (A–Z, a–z, 0–9) and underscores, such that the first character is a letter and the length of the character vector is less than or equal to namelengthmax.

makeValidName deletes any whitespace characters before replacing any characters that are not alphanumerics or underscores. If a whitespace character is followed by a lowercase letter, makeValidName converts the letter to the corresponding uppercase character.

example

N = matlab.lang.makeValidName(S,Name,Value) includes additional options specified by one or more Name,Value pair arguments.

example

[N, modified] = matlab.lang.makeValidName(___) returns a logical array, modified, indicating modified characters. You can use this syntax with any of the input arguments of the previous syntaxes.

Examples

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Open Script
S = {'Item_#','Price/Unit','1st order','Contact'};
N = matlab.lang.makeValidName(S)

N =

  1×4 cell array

    'Item__'    'Price_Unit'    'x1stOrder'    'Contact'

In the first and second elements, makeValidName replaced the invalid characters (# and /), with underscores. In the third element, makeValidName appended a prefix because the character vector does not begin with a letter, deleted the empty space, and capitalized the character following the deleted space.

Open Script

Replace invalid characters with the corresponding hexadecimal representation.

S = {'Item_#','Price/Unit','1st order','Contact'};
N = matlab.lang.makeValidName(S,'ReplacementStyle','hex')

N =

  1×4 cell array

    'Item_0x23'    'Price0x2FUnit'    'x1stOrder'    'Contact'

In the first and second elements, makeValidName replaced the invalid characters (# and /), with their hexadecimal representation. In the third element, makeValidName appended a prefix because the character vector does not begin with a letter, deleted the empty space, and capitalized the character following the deleted space.

Delete invalid characters.

N = matlab.lang.makeValidName(S,'ReplacementStyle','delete')

N =

  1×4 cell array

    'Item_'    'PriceUnit'    'x1stOrder'    'Contact'

makeValidName deleted the invalid characters (# and /). In the third element, makeValidName appended a prefix because the character vector does not begin with a letter, deleted the empty space, and capitalized the character following the deleted space.

Open Script
S = {'1stMeasurement','2ndMeasurement','Control'};
N = matlab.lang.makeValidName(S,'Prefix','m_')

N =

  1×3 cell array

    'm_1stMeasurement'    'm_2ndMeasurement'    'Control'

Only the elements that do not start with a letter are prepended with a prefix.

Open Script
S = {'a%name', 'name_1', '2_name'};
[N, modified] = matlab.lang.makeValidName(S)

N =

  1×3 cell array

    'a_name'    'name_1'    'x2_name'


modified =

  1×3 logical array

   1   0   1

makeValidName did not modify the second element.

Input Arguments

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Input strings, specified as a character vector or cell array of character vectors. If S is a cell array of character vectors, it must be a 1xN or Nx1 cell array.

Name-Value Pair Arguments

Specify optional comma-separated pairs of Name,Value arguments. Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name must appear inside single quotes (' '). You can specify several name and value pair arguments in any order as Name1,Value1,...,NameN,ValueN.

Example: 'ReplacementStyle','delete' deletes invalid characters.

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Replacement style, specified as 'underscore', 'delete', or 'hex'. The value controls how MATLAB replaces nonalphanumeric characters.

ReplacementStyle ValueDescription
'underscore' (default)Replaces all characters that are not alphanumerics or underscores with underscores. 'underscore' deletes whitespace characters and changes a lowercase letter following a whitespace to uppercase.
'hex'Replaces each character that is not an alphanumeric or underscore with its corresponding hexadecimal representation. 'hex' deletes whitespace characters and changes a lowercase letter following a whitespace to uppercase.
'delete'Deletes all characters that are not alphanumerics or underscores. 'delete' deletes whitespace characters and changes any lowercase letter following a whitespace to uppercase.

Character to prefix to inputs that do not begin with a letter after makeValidName replaces nonalphanumeric characters, specified as a character vector. A valid prefix must start with a letter, contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores, and not be longer than the value of namelengthmax.

Output Arguments

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Valid MATLAB identifiers, returned as a character vector or cell array of character vectors. The output has the same number of dimensions as the input, S.

Indicator of modified characters, returned as a logical scalar or array and having the same number of dimensions as the input, S. A value of 1 (true) indicates that makeValidName modified the input in the corresponding location. A value of 0 (false) indicates that makeValidName did not need to modify the input in the corresponding location.

More About

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Tips

  • To ensure that character vectors are valid and unique, use matlab.lang.makeUniqueStrings after matlab.lang.makeValidName.

    S = {'my.Name','my_Name','my_Name'};
validValues = matlab.lang.makeValidName(S)
validUniqueValues = matlab.lang.makeUniqueStrings(validValues,{},...
    namelengthmax)
    validValues = 

    'my_Name'    'my_Name'    'my_Name'


validUniqueValues = 

    'my_Name'    'my_Name_1'    'my_Name_2'

  • To customize an invalid character replacement, first use functions such as strrep or regexprep to convert to valid characters. For example, convert '@' characters in the character vector, S, to 'At' using strrep(S,'@','At'). Then, use matlab.lang.makeValidName to ensure that all characters in the vector are valid.

See Also

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Introduced in R2014a

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