Find variables in Workspace with partial string match adding expressions

Question

I have been using the function who as I found in this SO answer for finding variables in the workspace that match a string.

I have been trying without problem:

who('-regexp', 'signal');

That will return a list of variables containing the string 'signal', such as:

'signal'
'signal1'
'signal_RMS'
'signal1_RMS'

But I want to know how I can find variables adding exceptions, such as "exclude the variables that ends with '_RMS' ".

I tried including regular expressions as I found in Matlab documentation (regexp), with no luck, and the closer thing I found was something like this:

who('-regexp', 'signal(?!_RMS)');

But this will only exclude the variables 'signal' that are immediately follow by '_RMS',

'signal'
'signal1'
'signal1_RMS'

Any hint on how I can handle expressions to find variables such as "start with 'string', do not end up with 'otherstring' " ?

There are plenty of regex tutorials on the internet. I always found regexr helpful. — dasdingonesin
– dasdingonesin, Commented Jan 27, 2017 at 10:43

Wiktor Stribiżew · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-27 10:48:56Z

0

I want to know who can I find variables adding exceptions, such as "exclude the variables that ends with '_RMS' ".

The 'signal(?!_RMS)' pattern will find all signal substrings not immediately followed with _RMS. To make sure the strings do not end with _RMS, you need to allow any 0+ chars in between signal and _RMS and use the $ (end-of-string) anchor.

'signal(?!.*_RMS$)'

See the regex demo.

answered Jan 27, 2017 at 10:48

Wiktor Stribiżew

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1 Comment

DAZone Over a year ago

thank you very much, I didn't know regex101.com, really useful! this solved my problem

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