MATLAB: Regexp problem in ‘.’

Question

I have a string and I want to split it with '.', but the regexp does not work.

test='abcde.abcde';
regexp(test,'.','split')

but it does not work, the result is a 1*12 cell array.

however, if I replace the '.' with other symbol, such as '_', the regexp function works properly.

test='abcde_abcde';
regexp(test,'_','split')

just want know if there is any mistake with my operation? or, is this a feature in 'regexp' function?

Thanks!

Yu

Answer 1

Try

%%
test='abcde.abcde';
regexp(test,'\.','split')

returns

ans =
  1×2 cell array
    {'abcde'}    {'abcde'}
    

dot stands for any single character. An escape is needed to a literal dot.