Proper string conversion with implicit data type in MATLAB -

i have arbitrary strings shall converted suited data types (i.e. scalar double, double array or string), depending on content. str2num() job when interpreting status return value, function evaluates content of string which:

1. causes str2num('3-7') -4 (double), want stick '3-7' (char array)
2. is severe security issue, since can potentially execute code

one workaround use str2double(), not end double arrays, scalars or strings. unfortunately, isstrprop() not appropriate this.

example inputs (and outputs):

• '123.4' -> 123.4 (double scalar) [covered str2double() , str2num()]
• abc' -> 'abc' (char array) [inherently covered str2double() , str2num()]
• '123,456' -> [123, 456] (double array) [covered str2num() only]
• '3-7' -> '3-7' (char array) [don't know how cover]

use str2double , strsplit:

c = {'123.4','abc','123,456','3-7'}; ii = 1:numel(c)     cc = strsplit(c{ii},',');     res = [str2double(cc)];     if isnan(res)         res = c{ii};     end     disp(res)     disp(class(res))     disp('****************') end 

shows:

123.4000 double **************** abc char **************** 123   456 double **************** 3-7 char ****************