Find strings within other strings (2024)

Find strings within other strings

collapse all in page

Syntax

k = strfind(str,pat)

k = strfind(str,pat,'ForceCellOutput',cellOutput)

Description

example

k = strfind(str,pat) searches str for occurrences of pat. The output, k, indicates the starting index of each occurrence of pat in str. If pat is not found, then strfind returns an empty array, []. The strfind function executes a case-sensitive search.

  • If str is a character vectoror a string scalar, then strfind returns a vectorof type double.

  • If str is a cell array of charactervectors or a string array, then strfind returnsa cell array of vectors of type double.

example

k = strfind(str,pat,'ForceCellOutput',cellOutput) forces strfind to return k as a cell array when cellOutput is true, even when str is a character vector.

Examples

collapse all

Find Substrings in Character Vector

Open Live Script

Find the starting indices of substrings in a character vector.

First, create a character vector.

str = 'Find the starting indices of substrings in a character vector';

Find the substring in.

k = strfind(str,'in')
k = 1×5 2 15 19 36 41

There are five instances in str.

Find the substring In.

k = strfind(str,'In')
k = []

Since strfind is case sensitive, the substring is not found. k is an empty array.

Find the blank spaces in str.

k = strfind(str,' ')

There are ten blank spaces in str.

Find Letters and Words Using Patterns

Open Live Script

Since R2020b

Create a character vector.

str = 'Find the letters.'
str = 'Find the letters.'

Create a pattern that matches sequences of letters using the lettersPattern function.

pat = lettersPattern
pat = pattern Matching: lettersPattern

Find the index of each letter. While pat matches a sequence of letters having any length, strfind stops as soon as it finds a match and then proceeds to the next match. For example, 'Find' and 'F' are both matches for lettersPattern, since the number of letters for a match is not specified. But strfind matches 'F' first and returns its index. Then strfind matches 'i', and so on. (You can call lettersPattern with an optional argument that specifies the number of letters to match.)

k = strfind(str,pat)
k = 1×14 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

To find the starts of words, call lettersPattern with boundaries. The letterBoundary function matches a boundary between letters and nonletter characters.

pat = letterBoundary + lettersPattern
pat = pattern Matching: letterBoundary + lettersPattern
k = strfind(str,pat)
k = 1×3 1 6 10

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

Find Substrings in Cell Array

Open Live Script

Find the starting indices of substrings in a cell array of character vectors.

Create a cell array of character vectors.

str = {'How much wood would a woodchuck chuck'; 'if a woodchuck could chuck wood?'};

Find wood in str.

idx = strfind(str,'wood')
idx=2×1 cell array {[10 23]} {[ 6 28]}

Examine the output cell array to find the instances of wood.

idx{:,:}
ans = 1×2 10 23
ans = 1×2 6 28

The substring wood occurs at indices 10 and 23 in the first character vector and at indices 6 and 28 in the second character vector.

Return Indices in Cell Array

Open Live Script

Find the occurrences of a substring in a character vector. Force strfind to return the indices of those occurrences in a cell array. Then display the indices.

Create a character vector and find the occurrences of the pattern ain.

str = 'The rain in Spain.';k = strfind(str,'ain','ForceCellOutput',true)
k = 1x1 cell array {[6 15]}

strfind returns a scalar cell that contains a numeric array, which contains indices of occurrences of the substring ain in str. To access the numeric array within the cell, use curly braces.

k{1}
ans = 1×2 6 15

Input Arguments

collapse all

strInput text
string array | character vector | cell array of character vectors

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

patSearch pattern
string scalar | character vector | pattern scalar (since R2020b)

Search pattern, specified as one of the following:

  • String scalar

  • Character vector

  • pattern scalar (since R2020b)

cellOutputIndicator for forcing output to be returned as cell array
false (default) | true | 0 | 1

Indicator for forcing output to be returned as a cell array,specified as false, true, 0,or 1.

Output Arguments

collapse all

k — Indices of occurrences of pat
array

Indices of occurrences of pat, returned as an array. If pat is not found, then k is an empty array, [].

  • If str is a character vector or a string scalar, k is a vector of doubles indicating the index of each occurrence of pat.

  • If str is a cell array of character vectors or a string array, k is a cell array. For each piece of text in str, the corresponding cell of k contains a vector of doubles indicating the index of each occurrence of pat.

Tips

  • If pat is a character vector or string scalar with no characters ('' or ""), then strfind returns an empty array.

  • The contains function is recommended for finding patterns within string arrays.

Extended Capabilities

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

See Also

count | replace | strtok | strcmp | regexp | split | contains | pattern | startsWith | endsWith | matches | extract

Topics

  • Create String Arrays
  • Search and Replace Text
  • Build Pattern Expressions

MATLAB Command

You clicked a link that corresponds to this MATLAB command:

 

Run the command by entering it in the MATLAB Command Window. Web browsers do not support MATLAB commands.

Find strings within other strings (1)

Select a Web Site

Choose a web site to get translated content where available and see local events and offers. Based on your location, we recommend that you select: .

You can also select a web site from the following list:

Americas

  • América Latina (Español)
  • Canada (English)
  • United States (English)

Europe

  • Belgium (English)
  • Denmark (English)
  • Deutschland (Deutsch)
  • España (Español)
  • Finland (English)
  • France (Français)
  • Ireland (English)
  • Italia (Italiano)
  • Luxembourg (English)
  • Netherlands (English)
  • Norway (English)
  • Österreich (Deutsch)
  • Portugal (English)
  • Sweden (English)
  • Switzerland
    • Deutsch
    • English
    • Français
  • United Kingdom (English)

Asia Pacific

  • Australia (English)
  • India (English)
  • New Zealand (English)
  • 中国
  • 日本 (日本語)
  • 한국 (한국어)

Contact your local office

Find strings within other strings (2024)

FAQs

How do I find a string present in another string? ›

Python Substring in String
  1. Using the If-Else.
  2. Using In Operator.
  3. Checking using split() method.
  4. Using find() method.
  5. Using “count()” method.
  6. Using index() method.
  7. Using list comprehension.
  8. Using lambda function.
Jun 20, 2024

How do you check if a string contains any of some strings? ›

Basic Syntax for Contains() Method

Contains(CheckString); The function returns true if CheckString is found within YourString , and false if it is not. As simple as that!

How to find specific string in another string in Java? ›

Use the String. indexOf(String str) method. From the JavaDoc: Returns the index within this string of the first occurrence of the specified substring.

How do you search for a string in another string in Python? ›

You can use the in operator or the string's find method to check if a string contains another string. The in operator returns True if the substring exists in the string. Otherwise, it returns False. The find method returns the index of the beginning of the substring if found, otherwise -1 is returned.

How to check if a string is present in another string in SQL? ›

How to check that a SQL string contains a substring? 1 SELECT * 2 FROM <TableName> 3 WHERE CHARINDEX('<substring>', <ColumnName>) > 0; This query returns rows where the specified substring is found within the specified column. Thus, you do not need CONTAINS to achieve the desired result.

How to check if a string contains all the characters of another string? ›

The contains() method checks whether a string contains a sequence of characters. Returns true if the characters exist and false if not.

How do you check if a string is inside a list of strings? ›

Find String in List using count() method. The count() function is used to count the occurrence of a particular string in the list. If the count of a string is more than 0 in Python list of strings, it means that a particular string exists in the list, else that string doesn't exist in the list.

How do you check if part of a string is in a string? ›

The easiest and most effective way to see if a string contains a substring is by using if ... in statements, which return True if the substring is detected. Alternatively, by using the find() function, it's possible to get the index that a substring starts at, or -1 if Python can't find the substring.

How does indexOf work? ›

The indexOf() function returns the index of the first occurrence of the specified character or substring. In this case, since the letter "o" appears in the sixth position of the string, the function returns the value 4. let myString = "Hello World"; let index = myString. indexOf("World"); console.

How do you check how many times a string appears in another string? ›

One such method is the Python count() function which is a String subclass method. It returns the number of occurrences of a specified string from the input string.

How to get substring? ›

Substring in Java can be obtained from a given string object using one of the two variants:
  1. Public String substring(int startIndex) This method gives a new String object that includes the given string's substring from a specified inclusive startIndex. ...
  2. Public String substring(int startIndex, int endIndex):
Apr 11, 2024

How to search for a string in another string JavaScript? ›

The JavaScript includes() method was introduced with ES6, and it is the most common and modern way of checking if a string contains a specific character or a series of characters. The general syntax for the includes() method looks something similar to this: string. includes(substring, index);

How do you find a string is present in another string? ›

Check if a string is substring of another using inbuilt find function – O(N*M) time and O(1) space: This approach uses a built-in function to quickly check if one string (S1) is part of another string (S2). This makes the process simple and efficient without needing to manually search through the strings.

How do I search for a specific string? ›

The search() method searches a string for a string (or a regular expression) and returns the position of the match:
  1. Examples. let text = "Please locate where 'locate' occurs!"; ...
  2. Examples. Perform a search for "ain": ...
  3. Examples. Check if a string includes "world": ...
  4. Examples. Returns true: ...
  5. Returns false: ...
  6. Examples.

How to check if string contains substring in Java? ›

The first and foremost way to check for the presence of a substring is the . contains() method. It's provided by the String class itself and is very efficient. The method accepts a CharSequence and returns true if the sequence is present in the String we call the method on.

How do I find a string in another string in Excel? ›

You can use the SEARCH and SEARCHB functions to determine the location of a character or text string within another text string, and then use the MID and MIDB functions to return the text, or use the REPLACE and REPLACEB functions to change the text. These functions are demonstrated in Example 1 in this article.

How do you find the first occurrence of a string in another string? ›

String find is used to find the first occurrence of a sub-string in the specified string being called upon. It returns the index of the first occurrence of the substring in the string from the given starting position. The default value of starting position is 0.

How do you find the occurrence of a string in another string in Python? ›

Using find() to check if a string contains another substring

We can also use string find() function to check if string contains a substring or not. This function returns the first index position where substring is found, else returns -1.

Which function is used to find the occurrence of a given string in another string? ›

Define the printIndex() function that takes two string arguments, str and s, representing the larger string and the substring to be searched, respectively. The function uses the find() function to find the first occurrence of the substring in the larger string, and then uses a while loop to find subsequent occurrences.

Top Articles
Estate Sales Grand Rapids MI
Estate Selling Services in Grand Rapids-Lakeshore | Blue Moon Estate Sales
9Anime Keeps Buffering
Hk Jockey Club Result
Best Places To Get Free Furniture Near Me | Low Income Families
Wjbd Weather Radar
Mashle: Magic And Muscles Gogoanime
Orange Craigslist Free Stuff
Dr Paul Memorial Medical Center
83600 Block Of 11Th Street East Palmdale Ca
Sphynx Cats For Adoption In Ohio
Target Nytimes
Maya Mixon Portnoy
Almost Home Natchitoches Menu
8776725837
Sitel Group®, leader mondial de l’expérience client, accélère sa transformation et devient Foundever®
A Flame Extinguished Wow Bugged
Ethiopia’s PM pledges victory in video from front line
COUNTRY VOL 1 EICHBAUM COLLECTION (2024) WEB [FLAC] 16BITS 44 1KHZ
The Real Housewives Of Atlanta 123Movies
Sufficient Velocity Quests
The Blind Showtimes Near Showcase Cinemas Springdale
Carle Mycarle
Clayton Grimm Siblings
Papa Johns Mear Me
Gopher Hockey Forum
Nehemiah 6 Kjv
Wyr Discount Code
Ontpress Fresh Updates
Oakly Rae Leaks
Philasd Zimbra
Transformers Movie Wiki
How To Get Rope In Muck
No Good Dirty Scoundrel Crossword
Inland Empire Heavy Equipment For Sale By Owner
5128 Se Bybee Blvd
Calverton-Galway Local Park Photos
Craigslist Philly Free Stuff
Beaufort Mugfaces Last 72 Hours
Luchtvaart- en Ruimtevaarttechniek - Technische Universiteit Delft - Studiekeuze123 - Studiekeuze123
About Baptist Health - Baptist Health
Tapana Movie Online Watch 2022
Atlanta Farm And Garden By Owner
Desi Cinemas.com
Order Irs Tax Forms Online
Vcu Basketball Wiki
Mike Huckabee Bio, Age, Wife, Fox News, Net Worth, Salary
Ds Cuts Saugus
Temperature At 12 Pm Today
Obsidian Guard's Skullsplitter
Lenscrafters Westchester Mall
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Corie Satterfield

Last Updated:

Views: 6149

Rating: 4.1 / 5 (62 voted)

Reviews: 93% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Corie Satterfield

Birthday: 1992-08-19

Address: 850 Benjamin Bridge, Dickinsonchester, CO 68572-0542

Phone: +26813599986666

Job: Sales Manager

Hobby: Table tennis, Soapmaking, Flower arranging, amateur radio, Rock climbing, scrapbook, Horseback riding

Introduction: My name is Corie Satterfield, I am a fancy, perfect, spotless, quaint, fantastic, funny, lucky person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.