MATLAB: How to pass an array of strings from C# to MATLAB using MATLAB Builder NE 3.0.2 (R2009b)

arrayMATLAB Builder NEofstringstrings

I have created a .NET component using MATLAB Builder NE product. I would like to pass an array of string from C# program to the MATLAB function in the .NET component.

Best Answer

It is possible to create a string array in C# and pass it to an MWCharArray like below:
String[] input = new String[2] {"This", "is"};
MWCharArray inputStr = new MWCharArray(input);
But unfortunately, MWCharArray sends the array of strings to MATLAB as a column vector but not as a row vector. Thus it is not very useful when we send array of strings in the above way.
So the best way to send array of strings from C# to MATLAB is by creating an MWCellArray. Please see below for a complete example on how to pass array of strings from C# to MATLAB:
Here is simple MATLAB code which takes input as a cell array and concatenates the contents of cell array with other strings:
function result = concatStringArrays(input)
strVar = ['a', 'concatenated', 'string'];
result = [input{1}, input{2}, strVar];
end
Please note that Matlab array starts at index 1 instead of 0 unlike in C#
After creating the .NET component from the above MATLAB code, the component can be used in the C# .NET application like below:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using MathWorks.MATLAB.NET.Utility;
using MathWorks.MATLAB.NET.Arrays;
using stringArray;
namespace StringArr
{
      class Program
      {
          static void Main(string[] args)
          {
              MWCellArray inputString = null;
              MWCharArray resultString = null;
              try
              {
                  StringArray demo = new StringArray();
                  inputString = new MWCellArray(2);
                  inputString[1] = new MWCharArray("This");
                  inputString[2] = new MWCharArray("is");
                  Console.WriteLine("String input converted to pass to MATLAB .NET component is\n{0}", inputString);
                  resultString = (MWCharArray)demo.concatStringArrays(inputString);
                  Console.WriteLine("resulting string from MATLAB function is {0}", resultString);
                   Console.ReadKey();
              }
              catch (Exception exception)
              {
                  Console.WriteLine("Error: {0}", exception);
                  Console.ReadKey();
              }
          }
      }
}
Related Question