MATLAB: strmatch vs strcmp

Question

If I\'m using a char string as the needle and a cell array of chars as the haysack, would the following achieve the same results every time? I\'m looking at their d

Answer 1

No, the results will be different. The function strmatch returns a vector of indexes where the cell array (haystack) matches the string (needle):

>> arr = {'a', 'b', 'c', 'a', 'b'};
>> strmatch('a', arr, 'exact')
ans =
    1
    4

The strcmp function returns a logical vector, with 1s where the haystack matches and 0s where it doesn't match:

>> strcmp('a', arr)
ans =
    1   0   0   1   0

On the other hand, the expression find(strcmp('a', arr)) is equivalent to strmatch('a', arr, 'exact').

Answer 2

strmatch is not recommended. Use strncmp or validatestring instead. strmatch will be removed from a future version of matlab. *Warning given in Matlab 2017 a.