strcmp — Compare text inputs for exact case-sensitive equality with MATLAB-compatible implicit expansion.

strcmp(a, b) returns logical true when corresponding text values match exactly and false otherwise. It supports MATLAB-compatible string, char, and cellstr-style inputs with implicit expansion.

Syntax

tf = strcmp(A, B)

Inputs

Returns

Errors

How strcmp works

• Accepted text types: Works with string scalars/arrays, character vectors or matrices created with char, and cell arrays of character vectors. Mixed combinations are converted automatically, matching MATLAB.
• Implicit expansion: Scalar inputs expand to the shape of the other operand, producing element-wise comparisons for higher-dimensional arrays.
• Character arrays: Rows are compared individually. The result is a column vector whose length equals the number of rows in the character array.
• Cell arrays: Each cell is treated as a text scalar. Scalar cell arrays expand across the other operand before comparison.
• Missing strings: String elements equal to missing compare unequal to everything, including other missing values.
• Result form: A single logical scalar is returned for scalar comparisons; otherwise you receive a logical array using column-major MATLAB layout.
• Case sensitivity: Matching is case-sensitive. Use strcmpi for case-insensitive comparisons.
• Unsupported datatypes: Following the documented text-comparison rule, integer and other unsupported numeric inputs return scalar logical false; RunMat does not gather or stringify them.

Does RunMat run strcmp on the GPU?

strcmp is a host text comparison sink. Numeric resident operands are unsupported datatypes and return scalar logical false without gather or backend-specific kernels.

GPU memory and residency

strcmp compares host text and returns host logical output. Unsupported numeric resident operands return false without provider access.

Examples

Compare Two Equal Strings

tf = strcmp("RunMat", "RunMat")

Expected output:

tf = logical
   1

Compare String Array With Scalar Text

names = ["red" "green" "blue"];
tf = strcmp(names, "green")

Expected output:

tf = 1×3 logical array
   0   1   0

Compare Character Array Rows

labels = char("cat", "dog", "cat");
tf = strcmp(labels, "cat")

Expected output:

tf = 3×1 logical array
   1
   0
   1

Compare Two Cell Arrays Of Character Vectors

C1 = {'apple', 'pear', 'grape'};
C2 = {'apple', 'peach', 'grape'};
tf = strcmp(C1, C2)

Expected output:

tf = 1×3 logical array
   1   0   1

Handle Missing Strings

vals = ["alpha" missing];
tf = strcmp(vals, "alpha")

Expected output:

tf = 1×2 logical array
   1   0

Implicit Expansion With Column Vector Text

patterns = char("north", "south");
tf = strcmp(patterns, ["north" "east"])

Expected output:

tf = 2×2 logical array
   1   0
   0   0

Using strcmp with coding agents

Open a RunMat example with live inputs, then ask the agent to explain how strcmp changes the result.

FAQ

Related Strings functions

Open-source implementation

Unlike proprietary runtimes, every RunMat function is open-source. Read exactly how strcmp is executed, line by line, in Rust.

• View the source for strcmp in Rust on GitHub
• Learn how the RunMat runtime works
• Found a bug? Open an issue with a minimal reproduction.

About RunMat

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