Syntax

Description

token = strtok(str) parses str from left to right, returning part or all of the text in token. Using the white-space character as a delimiter, the token output begins at the start of str, skipping any delimiters that might appear at the start, and includes all characters up to either the next delimiter or the end of str. White-space characters include space (ASCII 32), tab (ASCII 9), and carriage return (ASCII 13).

The str argument can be a character vector enclosed in single quotation marks, a cell array of character vectors, or a string array. If str is a cell array or string array containing N pieces of text, then token is an array of N tokens, with token{1} derived from str{1}, token{2} from str{2}, and so on.

token = strtok(str, delimiter) is the same as the above syntax except that you specify the delimiting character(s) yourself with delimiter. White-space characters are not considered to be delimiters when using this syntax unless you include them in the delimiter argument. If the delimiter input specifies more than one character, MATLAB^® treats each character as a separate delimiter; it does not treat the whole piece of text as one delimiter. The number and order of characters in the delimiter argument is unimportant. Do not use escape sequences as delimiters. For example, use char(9) rather than '\t' for tab.

[token, remain] = strtok(str, ...) returns in remain that part of str, if any, that follows token. The delimiter is included in remain. If no delimiters are found in str, then the whole of str (excluding any leading delimiting characters) is returned in token, and remain has no characters. If str is a cell array of character vectors, token is a cell array of tokens and remain is a cell array of the remainders. If str is a string array, token is a string array of tokens and remain is a string array of the remainders.

Examples

Example 1

This example uses the default white-space delimiter. Note that space characters at the start of the character vector are not included in the token output, but the space character that follows token is included in remain:

s = '  This is a simple example.';
[token, remain] = strtok(s)

token =
This
remain =
 is a simple example.

Example 2

Take a character vector of HTML code and break it down into segments delimited by the < and > characters. Write a while loop to parse the character vector and print each segment:

s = sprintf('%s%s%s%s', ... 
'<ul class=continued><li class=continued>', ...
'<pre><a name="13474"></a>token = strtok', ...
'(''str'', delimiter)<a name="13475"></a>', ...
'token = strtok(''str'')');

remain = s;

while true
   [str, remain] = strtok(remain, '<>');
   if isempty(str),  break;  end
   disp(sprintf('%s', str))
end

Here is the output:

ul class=continued
li class=continued
pre
a name="13474"
/a
token = strtok('str', delimiter)
a name="13475"
/a
token = strtok('str')

Example 3

Using strtok on a cell array of character vectors returns a cell array of character vectors in token and a character array in remain:

s = {'all in good time'; ...
     'my dog has fleas'; ...
     'leave no stone unturned'};

remain = s;

for k = 1:4
   [token, remain] = strtok(remain);
   token
end

Here is the output:

token = 
    'all'
    'my'
    'leave'
token = 
    'in'
    'dog'
    'no'
token = 
    'good'
    'has'
    'stone'
token = 
    'time'
    'fleas'
    'unturned'

See Also

strcmp | strfind | strncmp | strsplit | textscan