Create string arrays and insert text before substrings.

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

str = "bread cheese wine"

str = 
"bread cheese wine"

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

Insert a comma before each space character in the string. The insertBefore function inserts text before each matching substring.

newStr = insertBefore(str," ",",")

newStr = 
"bread, cheese, wine"

Insert substrings into each element 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 str.

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

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

newStr = insertBefore(str,[" fox";" dog"],[" brown";" lazy"])

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

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"

Insert a new folder name at the end of each path, just before the file name. To match the file names, create a pattern that matches the last "\" character and all remaining text to the end of a string. Use the wildcardPattern function to match all characters except "\" and the textBoundary function to match the end of the string. Then call insertBefore to insert the new folder name before the matching text.

pat = "\" + wildcardPattern("Except","\") + textBoundary

pat = pattern
  Matching:

    "\" + wildcardPattern("Except","\") + textBoundary

filenames = insertBefore(str,pat,"\20200601")

filenames = 3x1 string
    "C:\Temp\20200601\MyReport.docx"
    "C:\Data\Experiment1\Trial1\20200601\Sample1.csv"
    "C:\Temp\20200601\Slides.pptx"

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

Create string arrays and specify positions to insert substrings.

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

str = "James Maxwell"

str = 
"James Maxwell"

Insert a substring before the seventh character.

newStr = insertBefore(str,7,"Clerk ")

newStr = 
"James Clerk Maxwell"

Insert substrings into 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 = ["James Maxwell";"Carl Gauss"]

str = 2x1 string
    "James Maxwell"
    "Carl Gauss"

newStr = insertBefore(str,[7;6],["Clerk ";"Friedrich "])

newStr = 2x1 string
    "James Clerk Maxwell"
    "Carl Friedrich Gauss"

Create a character vector and insert text before a specified position.

chr = 'mushrooms and onions'

chr = 
'mushrooms and onions'

Insert text before the tenth position.

newChr = insertBefore(chr,10,', peppers,')

newChr = 
'mushrooms, peppers, and onions'

Insert text before a substring.

newChr = insertBefore(chr,' and',', peppers,')

newChr = 
'mushrooms, peppers, and onions'