strmatch is not recommended. Use strncmp instead.

To find possible partial matches for a character vector, use strncmp or validatestring, depending on your requirements. strncmp returns the numeric index of all array elements that begin with the specified character vector, whereas validatestring returns a single character vector that represents the best match to the specified character vector. To find an exact match for a character vector, use strcmp.

For instance, if your code currently contains lines such as these:

list = {'max', 'minimax', 'maximum', 'max'} 
x = strmatch('max',list)

MATLAB returns the numeric indices of the list array elements that begin with max:

x =

     1
     3
     4

Replace strmatch with one of the following:

• validatestring

  MATLAB returns the character vector representing the best match, and if multiple or no matches exist, returns an error.

  For instance, this code returns a character vector:

  list = {'max', 'minimax', 'maximum', 'max'}
x = validatestring('max', list)
x =

max

• strncmp

  MATLAB returns a logical array indicating which character vectors match the specified character vector.

  For instance, if you specify this code:

  list = {'max', 'minimax', 'maximum', 'max'}
x = strncmp('max', list, 3)

  MATLAB returns logical value true (1) to indicate that the first, third, and fourth list elements begin with max and logical value false (0) to indicate that the second list element does not begin with max.

  x =

     1     0     1     1


  If you prefer for MATLAB to return the numeric indices of list, use find, as follows:

  list = {'max', 'minimax', 'maximum', 'max'}
x = find(strncmp(list, 'max', 3))


If your input to strmatch is a character matrix, then first convert the matrix to a cell array using cellstr. Then, pass the output from cellstr to strncmp or validatestring. For example, if your code is currently this:

 x = strmatch('max', char('max','minimax', 'maximum', 'max'))


Replace it with this:

list = cellstr(char('max', 'minimax', 'maximum', 'max'))
x = strncmp('max', list, 3)

MATLAB returns:

x =

     1
     0
     1
     1