<html lang="en"> <head> <title>Strings - GNU Octave</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> <meta name="description" content="GNU Octave"> <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13"> <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> <link rel="prev" href="Numeric-Data-Types.html#Numeric-Data-Types" title="Numeric Data Types"> <link rel="next" href="Data-Containers.html#Data-Containers" title="Data Containers"> <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> <style type="text/css"><!-- pre.display { font-family:inherit } pre.format { font-family:inherit } pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } span.sc { font-variant:small-caps } span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; } span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } --></style> </head> <body> <div class="node"> <a name="Strings"></a> <p> Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Data-Containers.html#Data-Containers">Data Containers</a>, Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Numeric-Data-Types.html#Numeric-Data-Types">Numeric Data Types</a>, Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="index.html#Top">Top</a> <hr> </div> <h2 class="chapter">5 Strings</h2> <p><a name="index-strings-321"></a><a name="index-character-strings-322"></a><a name="index-g_t_0022-323"></a><a name="index-g_t_0027-324"></a> A <dfn>string constant</dfn> consists of a sequence of characters enclosed in either double-quote or single-quote marks. For example, both of the following expressions <pre class="example"> "parrot" 'parrot' </pre> <p class="noindent">represent the string whose contents are ‘<samp><span class="samp">parrot</span></samp>’. Strings in Octave can be of any length. <p>Since the single-quote mark is also used for the transpose operator (see <a href="Arithmetic-Ops.html#Arithmetic-Ops">Arithmetic Ops</a>) but double-quote marks have no other purpose in Octave, it is best to use double-quote marks to denote strings. <p>Strings can be concatenated using the notation for defining matrices. For example, the expression <pre class="example"> [ "foo" , "bar" , "baz" ] </pre> <p class="noindent">produces the string whose contents are ‘<samp><span class="samp">foobarbaz</span></samp>’. See <a href="Numeric-Data-Types.html#Numeric-Data-Types">Numeric Data Types</a>, for more information about creating matrices. <ul class="menu"> <li><a accesskey="1" href="Escape-Sequences-in-String-Constants.html#Escape-Sequences-in-String-Constants">Escape Sequences in String Constants</a> <li><a accesskey="2" href="Character-Arrays.html#Character-Arrays">Character Arrays</a> <li><a accesskey="3" href="Creating-Strings.html#Creating-Strings">Creating Strings</a> <li><a accesskey="4" href="Comparing-Strings.html#Comparing-Strings">Comparing Strings</a> <li><a accesskey="5" href="Manipulating-Strings.html#Manipulating-Strings">Manipulating Strings</a> <li><a accesskey="6" href="String-Conversions.html#String-Conversions">String Conversions</a> <li><a accesskey="7" href="Character-Class-Functions.html#Character-Class-Functions">Character Class Functions</a> </ul> </body></html>