Cell Arrays of Character Vectors
To store text as a character vector, enclose it single quotes. Typically, a character vector has text that
you consider to be a single piece of information, such as a file name or a label for a plot. If you have
many pieces of text, such as a list of file names, then you can store them in a cell array. A cell array
whose elements are all character vectors is a cell array of character vectors.
Note
• As of R2018b, the recommended way to store text is to use string arrays. If you create variables
that have the string data type, store them in string arrays, not cell arrays. For more information,
see “Text in String and Character Arrays” on page 6-2 and “Update Your Code to Accept Strings”
on page 6-64.
• While the phrase cell array of strings frequently has been used to describe such cell arrays, the
phrase is no longer accurate because such a cell array holds character vectors, not strings.
Create Cell Array of Character Vectors
To create a cell array of character vectors, use curly braces, {}, just as you would to create any cell
array. For example, use a cell array of character vectors to store a list of names.
C = {'Li','Sanchez','Jones','Yang','Larson'}
C = 1x5 cell
{'Li'}
{'Sanchez'}
{'Jones'}
{'Yang'}
{'Larson'}
The character vectors in C can have different lengths because a cell array does not require that its
contents have the same size. To determine the lengths of the character vectors in C, use the
strlength function.
L = strlength(C)
L = 1×5
2
7
5
4
6
Access Character Vectors in Cell Array
To access character vectors in a cell array, index into it using curly braces, {}. Extract the contents of
the first cell and store it as a character vector.
C = {'Li','Sanchez','Jones','Yang','Larson'};
chr = C{1}
chr =
'Li'
Assign a different character vector to the first cell.
C{1} = 'Yang'
6 Characters and Strings
6-12