MATLAB: Textscan to parse string

textscan

Hello,
I am trying to use textscan to parse an IP address to get 4 integers:
str = '48.2.81.56'
integers = textscan(str,'%u8',4, 'Delimiter', '.');
Why is this is not working correctly?
Thank you.

Best Answer

Unfortunately, in at least some versions, textscan() keeps reading for numeric fields as long as what is in the input is characters that could be part of a number format. It does not pay attention to the delimiter until after it has done that.
So the 48.2.81.56 is read as "4 is a digit, 8 is a digit, decimal place is part of a floating point format, 2 is a digit, decimal point has already occurred in the number so the number must have ended, 48.2; now look, the decimal point is the delimiter. Okay 8 and 1 are digits, decimal point is part of a floating point format, 5 and 6 are digits, end of string so the number has ended, 81.56. Now convert the 48.2 and 81.56 into the %u8 format."
What you should do instead is
integers = uint8( str2double( regexp( str, '\.', 'split' ) ) )
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