`matlab.lang.makeUniqueStrings`

Makes strings unique by appending numbers to the ones that collide.

Syntax

u = matlab.lang.makeUniqueStrings(str, exclusions)

Changes str so that it does not match any text in exclusions.

u = matlab.lang.makeUniqueStrings(strs)

Makes the elements of a cell array differ from each other.

Description

A string that already differs from everything in exclusions is returned unchanged. Otherwise the function appends _1, _2, and so on until the name is free. For a cell array without exclusions, the first occurrence is kept and later duplicates receive suffixes in order.

A typical use is naming new items, files or table variables without overwriting existing ones.

Input arguments

str: Text or cell array of text to fix.
exclusions: Text or cell array of text that the result must avoid.

Output arguments

u: The unique text, with the same shape as str.

Example

Avoiding existing names

matlab.lang.makeUniqueStrings('file', {'file', 'file_1', 'other'})
matlab.lang.makeUniqueStrings({'a', 'a', 'b', 'a'})

Output

ans = 'file_2'
ans = 1×4 cell

    {'a'}    {'a_1'}    {'b'}    {'a_2'}

matlab.lang.makeUniqueStrings