Clarification: Array of strings vs cell array of character vectors

I'm beginning to code a new project. I'll have multi-tiered structures to work with, and some of the fields will have labels and comments on certain data entries. I can put these in as arrays of strings OR as cell arrays of character vectors.

comment1 = strings('hello','world','!');        %3x1 string
  %vs
comment2 = cellstr(['hello','world','!    ']);  %3x1 cell

Do you find one is easier to work with than another? I'm leaning towards arrays of strings. It's easier to set up at least.

Answer 1

[James Tursa]

Generally, if you will be accessing the individual strings downstream in your code, use a cell array of strings. Many MATLAB functions are already coded to handle these naturally. E.g.,

comments = {'hello','world','!'};

If you also need to concatenate them later on you can always do this:

comment = [comments{:}];

[Bryan Wilson]

Great. Thanks.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

The string() data type is very new. I am still trying to figure out what it is good for.

It does add a layer of object transparency, allowing you to say

A(K) = B

without having to know that you instead need to do

A{K} = B

because the content happens to be a character vector. That is good over the long term for object oriented processing.

But in practical terms, the only benefit I have seen to date is that finally we can answer those questions where a student is asked to store a character vector into "a" location. Like the assignments where the student has to write a function that accepts a matrix and returns a matrix of the same size in which each entry of the output matrix is either 'odd' or 'even'. I am convinced that the people who make up the homework assignments do not know much about MATLAB.