list of telephone numbers

I am trying to create a code that reads a file and search for a particular name and display the line with the first, last name, and the phone number

the file is:

Arthur Jones [phone]
John Smith (011-44-235)135246 
Simon Addison [phone]
Rachel Jones [phone] 
Jean-Paul Maronne (011033-1)3482152 
Hideo Takata (011-81-3)3456-1212

and my code is:

function phonebook(last, first)
fid = fopen('list_of_telephone_numbers.txt', 'r');
if fid == -1
    disp('File not opened successfully')
else
    while feof(fid)==0
        tline = fgetl(fid);
        a = strfind(tline, last);
        b = strfind(tline, first);
        
        if ~isempty(a) && ~isempty(b)
            disp(tline) 
        end
    end
end 
end 

In the command window, when I type

>>phonebook('Jones', 'Arther')

I get blank results

>> phonebook('Jones', 'Arther')

>>

[Guillaume]

Why would expect anything different. No line of your file contain 'Arther', let alone 'Arther' and 'Jones' on the same line.

There's a line that contains 'Arthur' but that's a different spelling.

Note that your code doesn't differentiate between surname and first name, as far as it's concerned 'Arthur Jones' and 'Jones Arthur' are the same person.

[Britnie Casillas]

Awkward... I didnt realize I was spelling the name wrong...

It worked when I spelled it right. So, how do you differentiate between the surname and forename?

[Jeremy]

You could use

strtok

to break apart the names, if it is always <firstname lastname> then

[firstname,s] = strtok(tline);
[lastname,s2] = strtok(s);