erase - Delete substrings within strings - MATLAB (original) (raw)

Main Content

Delete substrings within strings

Syntax

Description

newStr = erase([str](#bu7fa8j%5Fsep%5Fbu4l86d-str),[match](#bu7fa8j-match)) deletes all occurrences of match in str. Theerase function returns the remaining text asnewStr.

If match is an array, then erase deletes every occurrence of every element of match instr. The str and match arguments do not need to be the same size.

example

Examples

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Create a string array and delete substrings from it.

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

str = 2×1 string "the quick brown fox jumps" "over the lazy dog"

Delete the substring "the " from str. The erase function deletes both instances.

newStr = erase(str,"the ")

newStr = 2×1 string "quick brown fox jumps" "over lazy dog"

Delete multiple substrings from str.

match = ["the ","quick ","lazy "]; newStr = erase(str,match)

newStr = 2×1 string "brown fox jumps" "over dog"

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 = 3×1 string "C:\Temp\MyReport.docx" "C:\Data\Experiment1\Trial1\Sample1.csv" "C:\Temp\Slides.pptx"

Delete the paths, leaving only file names. To match paths, create a pattern using the wildcardPattern function that matches all text that includes a final "\" character. Use that pattern with the erase function.

match = wildcardPattern + ""

match = pattern Matching:

wildcardPattern + "\"

filenames = erase(str,match)

filenames = 3×1 string "MyReport.docx" "Sample1.csv" "Slides.pptx"

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

Create a character vector. Delete the substring, ' World', including the space character.

newChr = erase(chr,' World')

Input Arguments

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Input text, specified as a string array, character vector, or cell array of character vectors.

Text to delete, specified as one of the following:

String array
Character vector
Cell array of character vectors
pattern array

Tips

To delete multiple occurrences of a match when the occurrences overlap, use the strrep function. erase only deletes the first occurrence when occurrences overlap.

Extended Capabilities

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Theerase function supports tall arrays with the following usage notes and limitations:

str must be a tall string array or tall cell array of char vectors.

For more information, see Tall Arrays.

Usage notes and limitations:

str and match must be a string scalar, a character vector, or a cell array containing not more than one character vector.

Version History

Introduced in R2016b