Simple data conversion help needed

Hello,

This is probably very simple.

Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong when using strcmp:

I have this user input:

 former = input('Enter the former','s')

To which the response will be something like: Si4+

I then am trying to seek and utilise instances of that user input, Si4+ like such:

    if strcmp(atom_type(i),'former')
        form(i,:) = x(i,:);

where atom_type is labelled as a cell containing instance of Si4+ and others.

However this doesn't work. It did however work when instead of 'former' in the strcmp part I explicitly write 'Si4+', so clearly there is some data conversion needed.

I thought

 former = cellstr(former)

would work, but alas no.

Can anyone help?

Kind regards,

Tom

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Don't put quotes around former in strcmp(). You might also want to use strcmpi instead. Also, to convert a cell to a character string, use char.

former = char(format); % Convert cell to string.

What is the type of atom_type(i)? Is it a cell? If so, you might need to get the contents of the cell instead of the cell itself by using braces: atom_type{i} or just pass it into char: char(atom_type(i)).

[Image Analyst]

Have you read the FAQ: http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#What_is_a_cell_array.3F

[Tom]

Thankyou!