Documentation

Convert to Cell Array of Character Vectors

When you create character arrays from character vectors, all of the vectors must have the same length. This often means that you have to pad blanks at the end of character vectors to equalize their length. However, another type of MATLAB^® array, the cell array, can hold different sizes and types of data in an array without padding. A cell array of character vectors is a cell array where every cell contains a character vector. Cell arrays of character vectors provide a flexible way to store character vectors of varying lengths.

Convert a character array to a cell array of character vectors. data is padded with spaces so that each row has an equal number of characters. Use cellstr to convert the character array.

data = ['Allison Jones';'Development  ';'Phoenix      '];
celldata = cellstr(data)

celldata =

  3×1 cell array

    {'Allison Jones'}
    {'Development'  }
    {'Phoenix'      }

data is a 3-by-13 character array, while celldata is a 3-by-1 cell array of character vectors. cellstr also strips the blank spaces at the ends of the rows of data.

The iscellstr function determines if the input argument is a cell array of character vectors. It returns a logical 1 (true) in the case of celldata:

iscellstr(celldata)

ans =

  logical

   1

Use char to convert back to a padded character array.

chr = char(celldata)

chr =

  3×13 char array

    'Allison Jones'
    'Development  '
    'Phoenix      '

For more information on cell arrays, see Access Data in Cell Array.

While the phrase "cell array of strings" frequently has been used to describe such arrays, the phrase is not accurate because such a cell array holds character vectors, not strings. Starting in R2016b, MATLAB provides string arrays as another means of storing text. If you create variables that have the string data type, store them in string arrays, not cell arrays.

Functions for Cell Arrays of Character Vectors

This table describes the MATLAB functions for working with cell arrays of character vectors.

You can also use the following set functions with cell arrays of character vectors.