regexp match - not reading the hole name

Hello!

I have a list o parameters and a txt file containing some parameters. I have to check if what is in the txt file is also in my list of parameters. For this I used: [a b c]=regexp(my_list_of_parameters, parameter_from_txt_file,'match')

In general it works, the variable a will contain the found parameter. The problem is that when in my txt file I have this parameter named: parameter1 and my list of parameters contain a parameter named: parameter1aedfwef; by using the code above, Matlab will say that parameter1 from my txt file exists in my list of parameters. When searching after parameter1, Matlab finds parameter1aedfwef and it stops after 1! It is not taking into consideration the hole name of the parameter. This is not good because is not the same parameter! What should I use for avoiding this?

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

[a b c]=regexp(my_list_of_parameters, [parameter_from_txt_file '$'], 'match');

This will match the parameter from the text file only if it occurs at the end of the string. It will, though, match the parameter if something else occurs before it in the string, such as matching oldparameter1 . If you do not want that, if you want an exact match, put '^' at the beginning of the [] list I show.

Are you looking for exact matches between the parameter from the text file and the list of parameters? If so then you should consider using ismember() instead of regexp()

[Diana Acreala]

Thank you for your help! I used your code line and it's working well:)

Answer 2

[David Young]

Try using \<parameter1\> in the regular expression, instead of parameter1.

For example:

fileword = 'parameter1';
paramlist = 'parameter2, parameter1xyz, parameter3';
[a b c] = regexp(paramlist, ['\<' fileword '\>'], 'match')

This depends on parameter names being made of alphanumeric characters and underscore.