How can I determine whether a string contains a substring?

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I have directory names that end in '0.0100'. I want to be able to skip certain directories by comparing the substring '0.0100' to the directory name. How can I do this?

Accepted Answer

MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 17 Nov 2022
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 17 Nov 2022
You can use the 'contains' function to determine whether a string contains a given substring or not. Specifically, 'contains' returns true if the first argument contains the second argument and false otherwise. For example:
>> smallSubstring = '0.0100';
>> largeString1 = 'Item0.0100';
>> largeString2 = 'Item0.0101';
>> contains(largeString1, smallSubstring)
ans =
  logical
   1
>> contains(largeString2, smallSubstring)
ans =
  logical
   0
You may find more information about 'contains' at the following documentation page:
  1 Comment
Steven Lord
Steven Lord on 17 Nov 2022
If you only want to detect a substring at the end of the larger string, use endsWith instead of contains. The corresponding function for detecting substrings at the beginning is startsWith.
A = ["MATLAB", "laboratory", "collaboration"];
startsWith(A, "lab")
ans = 1×3 logical array
0 1 0
endsWith(A, "lab", 'IgnoreCase', true) % LAB is close enough to lab
ans = 1×3 logical array
1 0 0
contains(A, "lab")
ans = 1×3 logical array
0 1 1

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More Answers (1)

Royi Avital
Royi Avital on 26 Aug 2018
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 29 Nov 2022
I guess that since MATLAB R2016b it is recommended to use `contains` :

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