strsplit

Split string or character vector at specified delimiter

Syntax

C = strsplit(str)

C = strsplit(str,delimiter)

C = strsplit(str,delimiter,Name,Value)

[C,matches] = strsplit(___)

Description

Note

split is recommended over strsplit because it provides greater flexibility and allows vectorization. For additional information, see Alternative Functionality.

C = strsplit(str) splits str at whitespace into C. A whitespace character is equivalent to any sequence in the set {' ','\f','\n','\r','\t','\v'}.

If str has consecutive whitespace characters, then strsplit treats them as one whitespace.

C = strsplit(str,delimiter) splits str at the delimiters specified by delimiter.

If str has consecutive delimiters, with no other characters between them, then strsplit treats them as one delimiter. For example, both strsplit('Hello,world',',') and strsplit('Hello,,,world',',') return the same output.

C = strsplit(str,delimiter,Name,Value) specifies additional delimiter options using one or more name-value pair arguments. For example, to treat consecutive delimiters as separate delimiters, you can specify 'CollapseDelimiters',false.

[C,matches] = strsplit(___) additionally returns the array, matches. The matches output argument contains all occurrences of delimiters upon which strsplit splits str. You can use this syntax with any of the input arguments of the previous syntaxes.

Examples

Split Character Vector on Whitespace

str = 'The rain in Spain.';
C = strsplit(str)

C = 1×4 cell
    {'The'}    {'rain'}    {'in'}    {'Spain.'}

C is a cell array containing four character vectors.

Split Character Vector of Values on Specific Delimiter

Split a character vector that contains comma-separated values.

data = '1.21, 1.985, 1.955, 2.015, 1.885';
C = strsplit(data,', ')

C = 1×5 cell
    {'1.21'}    {'1.985'}    {'1.955'}    {'2.015'}    {'1.885'}

Split a character vector, data, which contains the units m/s with an arbitrary number of whitespace on either side of the text. The regular expression, \s*, matches any whitespace character appearing zero or more times.

data = '1.21m/s1.985m/s 1.955 m/s2.015 m/s 1.885m/s';
[C,matches] = strsplit(data,'\s*m/s\s*',...
    'DelimiterType','RegularExpression')

C = 1×6 cell
    {'1.21'}    {'1.985'}    {'1.955'}    {'2.015'}    {'1.885'}    {0×0 char}

matches = 1×5 cell
    {'m/s'}    {'m/s '}    {' m/s'}    {' m/s '}    {'m/s'}

In this case, the last character vector in C is empty. This empty character vector follows the last matched delimiter.

Split Path on File Separator

myPath = 'C:\work\matlab';
C = strsplit(myPath,'\')

C = 1×3 cell
    {'C:'}    {'work'}    {'matlab'}

Split Character Vector with Multiple Delimiters

Split a character vector on ' ' and 'ain', treating multiple delimiters as one. Specify multiple delimiters in a cell array of character vectors.

str = 'The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.';
[C,matches] = strsplit(str,{' ','ain'},'CollapseDelimiters',true)

C = 1×11 cell
    {'The'}    {'r'}    {'in'}    {'Sp'}    {'stays'}    {'m'}    {'ly'}    {'in'}    {'the'}    {'pl'}    {'.'}

matches = 1×10 cell
    {' '}    {'ain '}    {' '}    {'ain '}    {' '}    {'ain'}    {' '}    {' '}    {' '}    {'ain'}

Split the same character vector on whitespace and on 'ain', using regular expressions and treating multiple delimiters separately.

[C,matches] = strsplit(str,{'\s','ain'},'CollapseDelimiters',...
    false, 'DelimiterType','RegularExpression')

C = 1×13 cell
    {'The'}    {'r'}    {0×0 char}    {'in'}    {'Sp'}    {0×0 char}    {'stays'}    {'m'}    {'ly'}    {'in'}    {'the'}    {'pl'}    {'.'}

matches = 1×12 cell
    {' '}    {'ain'}    {' '}    {' '}    {'ain'}    {' '}    {' '}    {'ain'}    {' '}    {' '}    {' '}    {'ain'}

In this case, strsplit treats the two delimiters separately, so empty character vectors appear in output C between the consecutively matched delimiters.

Split Text with Multiple, Overlapping Delimiters

Split text on the character vectors ', ' and ', and '.

str = 'bacon, lettuce, and tomato';
[C,matches] = strsplit(str,{', ',', and '})

C = 1×3 cell
    {'bacon'}    {'lettuce'}    {'and tomato'}

matches = 1×2 cell
    {', '}    {', '}

Because the command lists ', ' first and ', and ' contains ', ', the strsplit function splits str on the first delimiter and never proceeds to the second delimiter.

If you reverse the order of delimiters, ', and ' takes priority.

str = 'bacon, lettuce, and tomato';
[C,matches] = strsplit(str,{', and ',', '})

C = 1×3 cell
    {'bacon'}    {'lettuce'}    {'tomato'}

matches = 1×2 cell
    {', '}    {', and '}

Input Arguments

str — Input text

character vector | string scalar

Input text, specified as a character vector or a string scalar.

Data Types: char | string

delimiter — Delimiting characters

character vector | 1-by-n cell array of character vectors | 1-by-n string array

Delimiting characters, specified as a character vector, a 1-by-n cell array of character vectors, or a 1-by-n string array. Text specified in delimiter does not appear in the output C.

Specify multiple delimiters in a cell array or a string array. The strsplit function splits str on the elements of delimiter. The order in which delimiters appear in delimiter does not matter unless multiple delimiters begin a match at the same character in str. In that case strsplit splits on the first matching delimiter in delimiter.

delimiter can include the following escape sequences:

\\	Backslash
\0	Null
\a	Alarm
\b	Backspace
\f	Form feed
\n	New line
\r	Carriage return
\t	Horizontal tab
\v	Vertical tab

Example: ','

Example: {'-',','}

Data Types: char | cell | string

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Before R2021a, use commas to separate each name and value, and enclose Name in quotes.

Example: 'DelimiterType','RegularExpression' instructs strsplit to treat delimiter as a regular expression.

CollapseDelimiters — Multiple delimiter handling

1 (true) (default) | 0 (false)

Multiple delimiter handling, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'CollapseDelimiters' and either true or false. If true, then consecutive delimiters in str are treated as one. If false, then consecutive delimiters are treated as separate delimiters, resulting in empty character vector '' elements between matched delimiters.

Example: 'CollapseDelimiters',true

DelimiterType — Delimiter type

'Simple' (default) | 'RegularExpression'

Delimiter type, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'DelimiterType' and one of the following character vectors.

'Simple'	Except for escape sequences, strsplit treats delimiter as literal text.
'RegularExpression'	strsplit treats delimiter as a regular expression.

In both cases, delimiter can include escape sequences.

Output Arguments

C — Parts of original text

cell array of character vectors | string array

Parts of the original character vector, returned as a cell array of character vectors or as a string array. C always contains one more element than matches contains. Therefore, if str begins with a delimiter, then the first element of C contains no characters. If str ends with a delimiter, then the last cell in C contains no characters.

matches — Identified delimiters

cell array of character vectors | string array

Identified delimiters, returned as a cell array of character vectors or as a string array. matches always contains one less element than output C contains. If str is a character vector or a cell array of character vectors, then matches is a cell array. If str is a string array, then matches is a string array.

Alternative Functionality

Update code that makes use of strsplit to use split instead. The default orientation for split is by column. For example:

Not Recommended	Recommended
str = strsplit("1 2 3") str = 1×3 string array "1" "2" "3"	str = split("1 2 3") str = 3×1 string array "1" "2" "3"

Extended Capabilities

C/C++ Code Generation

Generate C and C++ code using MATLAB® Coder™.

Usage notes and limitations:

• The first input argument to strsplit must be a character vector.

Thread-Based Environment

Run code in the background using MATLAB® backgroundPool or accelerate code with Parallel Computing Toolbox™ ThreadPool.

This function fully supports thread-based environments. For more information, see Run MATLAB Functions in Thread-Based Environment.

Version History

Introduced in R2013a

R2025a: Code generation support

Generate C/C++ code for the strsplit function.