I have a matlab script and one of the variables is:
a = 'false' % my string
my goal is to convert such variable into a boolean variable:
a = false % my goal
is there a matlab function that allows me to convert the string into a boolean value?
a = string2boolean('false') % I would like to have something like this
If there are no functions that allow to do that what could be another possible solution?
You can write one yourself, it's rather simple
function [output]=string2boolean(string)
if strcmp(string,'false')
output = false;
else
output = true;
end
end
Additionally you can altogether skip the function and simply
a = strcmp(a,'true');
string2boolean = @(s) ~strcmpi(s, 'false');
You can misuse strcmpi for this, i.e
a = strcmpi(a, 'true');
This is a case-insensitive string comparison, so true, True and TRUE are all converted to the logical true. All other strings will be automatically converted to false.
a = ~strcmpi(a, 'false'). Gives a = false if a = 'false'.
a = false if a='false', no reason to write it that superfluous.'abc' or [1 2 3]. It is possible that there are other options than 'true' and 'false', since OP hasn't answered the question you asked in the comments. PS! I didn't mean OP should have both 'true' and 'false'. But it's the 'false' part that's "guaranteed" to answer OP's question. The 'true' version might be wrong (but probably isn't).true or false. But Matlab is not typesafe, so you could indeed return anything. That will however be unexpected behavior for future users of your function.if x == 0; y = [1, 2, 3]; else y = 'false'; end. Also, I agree, it should convert it to true or false, but it's possible that everything that's not false is true, and not the other way around.str2num works (tested with Matlab R2018a)
str2num( '1' ) %yields double(1)
str2num( '0' ) %yields double(0)
str2num( 'true' ) %yields logical(1)
str2num( 'false' ) %yields logical(0)
You can define a method/function as follows:
function boolValue = string2boolean(stringValue)
boolValue = ''
if strcmpi(string,'false')
boolValue = false
end
if strcmpi(string,'true')
boolValue = true
end
if-statement.
== to strcmp, but then it will be a plain copy of the other answer. I agree with @Bernhard here.Use ismember:
str = "true"; % 'true' also works
ismember(lower(str), {'true','1'}) % returns 1
This allows alternative true values than supported natively by Matlab's logical:
str = 'yes';
ismember(lower(str), {'true','1','yes','enable'}) % returns 1
logical. Is it always 'true' or 'false'? Why not juststrcmpi(a,'true')?~strcmp(a, 'false').