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C = strsplit( str ) splits the string, str , at whitespace into the cell array of strings, C . A whitespace character is equivalent to any sequence in the set {' ','\f','\n','\r','\t','\v'} .

example

C = strsplit( str , delimiter ) splits str at the delimiters specified by delimiter .

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C = strsplit( str , delimiter , Name,Value ) specifies additional delimiter options using one or more name-value pair arguments.

Split a string of comma-separated values.

data = '1.21, 1.985, 1.955, 2.015, 1.885';
C = strsplit(data,', ')

'1.21' '1.985' '1.955' '2.015' '1.885'

Split a string of values, data , which contains the units m/s with an arbitrary number of white-space on either side of the text. The regular expression, \s* , matches any white-space character appearing zero or more times.

data = '1.21m/s1.985m/s 1.955 m/s2.015 m/s 1.885m/s';
[C,matches] = strsplit(data,'\s*m/s\s*',...
    'DelimiterType','RegularExpression')

'1.21' '1.985' '1.955' '2.015' '1.885' '' matches = 'm/s' 'm/s ' ' m/s' ' m/s ' 'm/s'

In this case, the last string in C is empty. This empty string is the string that follows the last matched delimiter.

Split a string on ' ' and 'ain' , treating multiple delimiters as one. Specify multiple delimiters in a cell array of strings.

str = 'The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.';
[C,matches] = strsplit(str,{' ','ain'},'CollapseDelimiters',true)

'The' 'r' 'in' 'Sp' 'stays' 'm' 'ly' 'in' 'the' 'pl' '.' matches = ' ' 'ain ' ' ' 'ain ' ' ' 'ain' ' ' ' ' ' ' 'ain'

Split the same string on whitespace and on 'ain' , using regular expressions and treating multiple delimiters separately.

[C,matches] = strsplit(str,{'\s','ain'},'CollapseDelimiters',...
    false, 'DelimiterType','RegularExpression')

'The' 'r' '' 'in' 'Sp' '' 'stays' 'm' 'ly' 'in' 'the' 'pl' '.' matches = ' ' 'ain' ' ' ' ' 'ain' ' ' ' ' 'ain' ' ' ' ' ' ' 'ain'

In this case, strsplit treats the two delimiters separately, so empty strings appear in output C between the consecutively matched delimiters.

Split text on the strings ', ' and ', and ' .

str = 'bacon, lettuce, and tomato';
[C,matches] = strsplit(str,{', ',', and '})

'bacon' 'lettuce' 'and tomato' matches = ', ' ', '

Because the command lists ', ' first and ', and ' contains ', ' , the strsplit function splits str on the first delimiter and never proceeds to the second delimiter.

If you reverse the order of delimiters, ', and ' takes priority.

str = 'bacon, lettuce, and tomato';
[C,matches] = strsplit(str,{', and ',', '})

'bacon' 'lettuce' 'tomato' matches = ', ' ', and '