MATLAB Function Reference

strcat

String concatenation

Syntax

• t = strcat(s1,s2,s3,...)
  

Description

t = strcat(s1,s2,s3,...) horizontally concatenates corresponding rows of the character arrays s1, s2, s3, etc. All input arrays must have the same number of rows (or any can be a single string). When the inputs are all character arrays, the output is also a character array.

When any of the inputs is a cell array of strings, strcat returns a cell array of strings formed by concatenating corresponding elements of s1, s2, etc. The inputs must all have the same size (or any can be a scalar). Any of the inputs can also be character arrays.

Trailing spaces in character array inputs are ignored and do not appear in the output. This is not true for inputs that are cell arrays of strings. Use the concatenation syntax [s1 s2 s3 ...] to preserve trailing spaces.

Remarks

strcat and matrix operation are different for strings that contain trailing spaces:

• a = 'hello '
  b = 'goodbye'
  strcat(a,b)
  ans =
  hellogoodbye
  [a b]
  ans =
  hello goodbye
  

Examples

Given two 1-by-2 cell arrays a and b,

• a =                          b = 
      'abcde'    'fghi'             'jkl'    'mn'
  

the command t = strcat(a,b) yields:

• t = 
      'abcdejkl'    'fghimn'
  

Given the 1-by-1 cell array c = {`Q'}, the command t = strcat(a,b,c) yields:

• t = 
      'abcdejklQ'    'fghimnQ'
  

See Also

strvcat, cat, cellstr

str2num

strcmp