RosettaCodeData/Task/Search-a-list/MATLAB/search-a-list-3.m

14 lines
568 B
Matlab

function index = searchCollection(list,searchItem,firstLast)
%firstLast is a string containing either 'first' or 'last'. The 'first'
%flag will cause searchCollection to return the index of the first
%instance of the item being searched. 'last' will cause
%searchCollection to return the index of the last instance of the item
%being searched.
indicies = cellfun(@(x)x==searchItem,list);
index = find(indicies,1,firstLast);
assert(~isempty(index),['The string ''' searchItem ''' does not exist in this collection of strings.']);
end