Comparing two srings using strcmpi

I have stored the data of a uitable into a file dbt9.mat.. The first and second columns conntains the name and IdNo of an individual respectively. When I enter the name the corresponding IDno must be displayed in a editbox..

if true
  % code
end
In=load('C:\Users\Animesh\Documents\MATLAB\dbt9.mat');%file name
ln=size(In.comp,1);% comp is the data in uitable dbt9..
for i=1:ln
   nam=In.comp{i}
   b=strcmpi(nam,name); name is the name I have entered
   if b==1
       break;
   end

 end           
    if b==0
    set(handles.edit3,'String','NOT in db');
    else
    set(handles.edit3,'String',In.comp{ln+i}); 
    end

The problem is that when my gui is opened at first it works perfectly fine but when I try with another name (keeping the gui open) it shows 'NOT in db'..and when i close the gui and open it once again and try with the same name the corresponding Idno is displayed.The problem arises in strcmpi .. Any reason why it is happening like this?? Can anyone help please? Thanks a lot in advance..

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Before the strcmpi put these lines:

name
nam
whos name
whos nam

What does it report in the command window? You might also find this useful: http://blogs.mathworks.com/videos/2012/07/03/debugging-in-matlab/

[Animesh]

I checked that previously by writing name and nam inside the for loop and checking the results of each iteration which were found to be correct.The problem was with strcmpi .. Now I have put an extra pushbutton for clearing the textboxes.Then it works perfctly fine But I dont understand why was it not working in the previous case though the strings to compare were absolutely correct

[Image Analyst]

Neither will I until you show what I asked you to. Perhaps one was a cell instead of a string.

[Animesh]

Sorry Sir ,I thought both were same.. The output in first case is:

Name      Size            Bytes  Class    Attributes

name      1x6                12  char     global    

Name      Size            Bytes  Class    Attributes

nam2      1x6                12  char

And in the 2nd case its

Name      Size            Bytes  Class    Attributes

name      1x5                10  char     global    

Name      Size            Bytes  Class    Attributes

nam2      1x6                12  char

[Image Analyst]

You did the whos command but not the two lines before that (which have only the variable names all by themselves on the command line with no semicolon) so we don't know what their values (contents) are. nam2 was not mentioned in your original code. Anyway, it looks like in the first case they should match and in the second case they should not match.

[Animesh]

In the first case When I enter Suraj then the output is: name =

Suraj

nam2 =

Suraj

Name      Size            Bytes  Class    Attributes

name      1x6                12  char     global    

Name      Size            Bytes  Class    Attributes

nam2      1x6                12  char

In the second case when I type once again Suraj

name =

Suraj

nam2 =

Suraj

Name      Size            Bytes  Class    Attributes

name      1x5                10  char     global    

Name      Size            Bytes  Class    Attributes

nam2      1x6                12  char

nam was modified to nam2 in my code..So the no of bytes of name in the 2nd case does not matches with the one in case 1.

[Image Analyst]

There is probably a white space (like space, linefeed or carriage return) or some other invisible ascii character there. Try using strtrim().

[Animesh]

It worked..Thanks a lot for helping.

[Image Analyst]

Please mark my answer as Accepted then. Thanks.