STRCMP String Compare Function

Section: String Functions

USAGE

Compares two strings for equality. The general syntax for its use is 
  p = strcmp(x,y)

where x and y are two strings. Returns true if x and y are the same size, and are equal (as strings). Otherwise, it returns false. In the second form, strcmp can be applied to a cell array of strings. The syntax for this form is 

  p = strcmp(cellstra,cellstrb)

where cellstra and cellstrb are cell arrays of a strings to compare. Also, you can also supply a character matrix as an argument to strcmp, in which case it will be converted via cellstr (so that trailing spaces are removed), before being compared.

Example

The following piece of code compares two strings: 
--> x1 = 'astring';
--> x2 = 'bstring';
--> x3 = 'astring';
--> strcmp(x1,x2)

ans = 
 0 

--> strcmp(x1,x3)

ans = 
 1

Here we use a cell array strings 

--> x = {'astring','bstring',43,'astring'}

x = 
 [astring] [bstring] [43] [astring] 

--> p = strcmp(x,'astring')

p = 
 1 0 0 1

Here we compare two cell arrays of strings 

--> strcmp({'this','is','a','pickle'},{'what','is','to','pickle'})

ans = 
 0 1 0 1

Finally, the case where one of the arguments is a matrix string 

--> strcmp({'this','is','a','pickle'},['peter ';'piper ';'hated ';'pickle'])

ans = 
 0 0 0 0