strings function not available on MATLAB 2013

Since strings function was introduced in MATLAB 2016, how can one create a m by n array of empty strings in MATLAB 2013? Any suggestions?

Answer 1

[Geoff Hayes]

Said - you could try something like

 stringArray = repmat({''},10,2)

We use repmat to repeat copies of our cell array which has an empty string. In the above example, a 10x2 cell array of empty strings is created.

Answer 2

[Fangjun Jiang]

s=cell(3,2);
s(:)={''}
ischar(s{3,1})