### 5.1 Creating Strings

— Function File: blanks (n)

> Return a string of n blanks.

— Built-in Function: char (x)
— Built-in Function: char (cell_array)
— Built-in Function: char (s1, s2, ...)

> Create a string array from a numeric matrix, cell array, or list of

> If the argument is a numeric matrix, each element of the matrix is converted to the corresponding ASCII character. For example,

>               char ([97, 98, 99])
>                    => "abc"

> If the argument is a cell array of strings, the result is a string array with each element corresponding to one element of the cell array.

> For multiple string arguments, the result is a string array with each element corresponding to the arguments.

> The returned values are padded with blanks as needed to make each row of the string array have the same length.

— Function File: int2str (n)
— Function File: num2str (x, precision)
— Function File: num2str (x, format)

> Convert a number to a string. These functions are not very flexible, but are provided for compatibility with Matlab. For better control over the results, use `sprintf` (see Formatted Output).

— Function File: com2str (zz, flg)

> This function has been deprecated. Use num2str instead.

> Convert complex number to a string. Inputs

> zz
>   complex number
> flg
>   format flag 0 (default): -1, 0, 1, 1i, 1 + 0.5i 1 (for use with zpout): -1, 0, + 1, + 1i, + 1 + 0.5i

— Function File: strcat (s1, s2, ...)

> Return a string containing all the arguments concatenated. For example,

>               s = [ "ab"; "cde" ];
>               strcat (s, s, s)
>               => "ab ab ab "
>                       "cdecdecde"

— Built-in Variable: string_fill_char

> The value of this variable is used to pad all strings in a string matrix to the same length. It should be a single character. The default value is `" "` (a single space). For example,

>               string_fill_char = "X";
>               [ "these"; "are"; "strings" ]
>                    => "theseXX"
>                       "areXXXX"
>                       "strings"

— Function File: str2mat (s_1, ..., s_n)

> Return a matrix containing the strings s_1, ..., s_n as its rows. Each string is padded with blanks in order to form a valid matrix.

> This function is modelled after Matlab. In Octave, you can create a matrix of strings by `[`s_1`; ...;` s_n`]` even if the strings are not all the same length.

— Built-in Function: ischar (a)

> Return 1 if a is a string. Otherwise, return 0.

— Function File: isstr (a)

> This function has been deprecated. Use ischar instead.