MATLAB Language Introduction to MEX API Input a string, modify it in C, and output it
Example
In this example, we illustrate string manipulation in MATLAB MEX. We will create a MEX-function that accepts a string as input from MATLAB, copy the data into C-string, modify it and convert it back to mxArray returned to the MATLAB side.
The main objective of this example is to show how strings can be converted to C/C++ from MATLAB and vice versa.
stringIO.cpp
#include "mex.h"
#include <cstring>
void mexFunction(int nlhs, mxArray *plhs[], int nrhs, const mxArray *prhs[])
{
// check number of arguments
if (nrhs != 1 || nlhs > 1) {
mexErrMsgIdAndTxt("StringIO:WrongNumArgs", "Wrong number of arguments.");
}
// check if input is a string
if (mxIsChar(prhs[0])) {
mexErrMsgIdAndTxt("StringIO:TypeError", "Input is not a string");
}
// copy characters data from mxArray to a C-style string (null-terminated)
char *str = mxArrayToString(prhs[0]);
// manipulate the string in some way
if (strcmp("theOneString", str) == 0) {
str[0] = 'T'; // capitalize first letter
} else {
str[0] = ' '; // do something else?
}
// return the new modified string
plhs[0] = mxCreateString(str);
// free allocated memory
mxFree(str);
}
The relevant functions in this example are:
mxIsCharto test if anmxArrayis ofmxCHARtype.mxArrayToStringto copy the data of amxArraystring to achar *buffer.mxCreateStringto create anmxArraystring from achar*.
As a side note, if you only want to read the string, and not modify it, remember to declare it as const char* for speed and robustness.
Finally, once compiled we can call it from MATLAB as:
>> mex stringIO.cpp
>> strOut = stringIO('theOneString')
strOut =
TheOneString
>> strOut = stringIO('somethingelse')
strOut=
omethingelse
