How can I change contents of a string?

I have a large cell array where the first column is a bunch of names like:

"Johnson and Johnson "

"Creative - Example "

"Problem/Cell"

They are all listed in data{1}

So, the main problem is that when I go to use the information in the "Problem/Cell" the "/" makes a lot of problems and is unusable. So, I would like to replace any "/" with a "-".

What I've done that hasn't worked is

newdata = data{1};

for i = 1:length(data{i})

position(i) = strfind(newdata(i),'/');

end

position = position';

if ~isempty(position)

newdata(position) = '-';

end

I get the error: Error using subsindex. Function 'subsindex' is not defined for values of class 'cell'. Error is in line newdata(position) = '-'

Thanks

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

If your array is A, then

A = regexprep(A,'/','-');

[Mango]

This was perfect, so much more simple than what I was doing. Thanks.

Answer 2

[Honglei Chen]

Is your newdata also a cell? If so, you need to access it's content via {}.

In your loop definition, you probably mean length(newdata) instead?

Finally, you may want to use strrep to replace the character.

http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/ref/strrep.html

Answer 3

[Kevin Holst]

I'd say do something like this:

names = strrep({data{:,1}},'/','-');

That assumes that all of the names are only in the first column of your cell array as you said, and it makes a separate cell array with all of the names in it.