extractAfter

Create string arrays and select text that occurs after substrings.

str = "The quick brown fox"

str = 
"The quick brown fox"

Extract the substring that occurs after the substring "quick ". The extractAfter function selects the new text but does not include "quick " in the output.

newStr = extractAfter(str,"quick ")

newStr = 
"brown fox"

Create a new string array from the elements of a string array. When you specify different substrings as positions, they must be contained in a string array or a cell array that is the same size as the input string array.

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

str = 2x1 string
    "The quick brown fox jumps"
    "over the lazy dog"

newStr = extractAfter(str,["quick ";"the "])

newStr = 2x1 string
    "brown fox jumps"
    "lazy dog"

You also can specify one substring as a position that is applied to all elements of the input string array.

Since R2020b

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 = 3x1 string
    "C:\Temp\MyReport.docx"
    "C:\Data\Experiment1\Trial1\Sample1.csv"
    "C:\Temp\Slides.pptx"

To extract the file names, first create a pattern that matches a full path, and then extract what comes after that pattern.

A full path can have several levels, each consisting of any text followed by a "\" character. So start by creating a pattern that matches one level.

level = wildcardPattern + "\"

level = pattern
  Matching:

    wildcardPattern + "\"

Then, create a pattern that matches a full path, containing any number of levels.

pat = asManyOfPattern(level)

pat = pattern
  Matching:

    asManyOfPattern(wildcardPattern + "\")

Finally, call extractAfter.

filenames = extractAfter(str,pat)

filenames = 3x1 string
    "MyReport.docx"
    "Sample1.csv"
    "Slides.pptx"

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

Create strings after specified positions.

str = "Edgar Allen Poe"

str = 
"Edgar Allen Poe"

Select the substring after the 12th character.

newStr = extractAfter(str,12)

newStr = 
"Poe"

Select substrings from each element of a string array. When you specify different positions with numeric arrays, they must be the same size as the input string array.

str = ["Edgar Allen Poe";"Louisa May Alcott"]

str = 2x1 string
    "Edgar Allen Poe"
    "Louisa May Alcott"

newStr = extractAfter(str,[12;11])

newStr = 2x1 string
    "Poe"
    "Alcott"

Select substrings from each element and specify the same position.

newStr = extractAfter(str,6)

newStr = 2x1 string
    "Allen Poe"
    " May Alcott"

Create a character vector. Then create new character vectors that are substrings of chr.

chr = 'peppers and onions'

chr = 
'peppers and onions'

Select text after the 12th position.

newChr = extractAfter(chr,12)

newChr = 
'onions'

Select text after a substring.

newChr = extractAfter(chr,'and ')

newChr = 
'onions'