Create string arrays and select text that occurs after substrings.

Starting in R2017a, you can create strings using double quotes.

str = "The quick brown fox"

str = 
"The quick brown fox"

If you are using R2016b, create string arrays using the string function instead of double quotes.

Extract the substring that occurs after the substring "quick ". The extractAfter function selects the new text but does not include "quick " in the output.

newStr = extractAfter(str,"quick ")

newStr = 
"brown fox"

Create a new string array from the elements of a string array. When you specify different substrings as positions, they must be contained in a string array or a cell array that is the same size as the input string array.

str = ["The quick brown fox jumps";"over the lazy dog"]

str = 2x1 string
    "The quick brown fox jumps"
    "over the lazy dog"

newStr = extractAfter(str,["quick ";"the "])

newStr = 2x1 string
    "brown fox jumps"
    "lazy dog"

You also can specify one substring as a position that is applied to all elements of the input string array.

Since R2020b

Create a string array of file names, including full paths.

str = ["C:\Temp\MyReport.docx";
       "C:\Data\Experiment1\Trial1\Sample1.csv";
       "C:\Temp\Slides.pptx"]

str = 3x1 string
    "C:\Temp\MyReport.docx"
    "C:\Data\Experiment1\Trial1\Sample1.csv"
    "C:\Temp\Slides.pptx"

To extract the file names, first create a pattern that matches a full path, and then extract what comes after that pattern.

A full path can have several levels, each consisting of any text followed by a "\" character. So start by creating a pattern that matches one level.

level = wildcardPattern + "\"

level = pattern
  Matching:

    wildcardPattern + "\"

Then, create a pattern that matches a full path, containing any number of levels.

pat = asManyOfPattern(level)

pat = pattern
  Matching:

    asManyOfPattern(wildcardPattern + "\")

Finally, call extractAfter.

filenames = extractAfter(str,pat)

filenames = 3x1 string
    "MyReport.docx"
    "Sample1.csv"
    "Slides.pptx"

For a list of functions that create pattern objects, see pattern.

Create strings after specified positions.

Starting in R2017a, you can create strings using double quotes.

str = "Edgar Allen Poe"

str = 
"Edgar Allen Poe"

Select the substring after the 12th character.

newStr = extractAfter(str,12)

newStr = 
"Poe"

Select substrings from each element of a string array. When you specify different positions with numeric arrays, they must be the same size as the input string array.

str = ["Edgar Allen Poe";"Louisa May Alcott"]

str = 2x1 string
    "Edgar Allen Poe"
    "Louisa May Alcott"

newStr = extractAfter(str,[12;11])

newStr = 2x1 string
    "Poe"
    "Alcott"

Select substrings from each element and specify the same position.

newStr = extractAfter(str,6)

newStr = 2x1 string
    "Allen Poe"
    " May Alcott"

Create a character vector. Then create new character vectors that are substrings of chr.

chr = 'peppers and onions'

chr = 
'peppers and onions'

Select text after the 12th position.

newChr = extractAfter(chr,12)

newChr = 
'onions'

Select text after a substring.

newChr = extractAfter(chr,'and ')

newChr = 
'onions'