Variables that are not numbers
Like all programming languages Matlab allows us to give values to variables that are not numbers
% set a string value
my_name = 'Martin'
Note: single quotes for the value of the variable
Variables that hold words or sentences are often called string variables because they consist of a string of characters. Strings can be manipulated, added to, tested, and so in in many ways. Here are some examples.
% set a string value
my_2nd_name = 'Coath'
% force a re-spelling
my_2nd_name(3) = 'u'
% make a longer string by concatenating three short strings
my_full_name = [my_name, ' ', my_2nd_name]
% pull out individual elements
my_initials = [my_full_name(1), '.' my_full_name(8), '.']
% more general version of previous example
spc_pos = strfind(my_full_name,' '); my_initials = [my_full_name(1), '.' my_full_name(spc_pos +1), '.']