How to convert characters array into integer number array

Hello,

I have a text file in which all the contents are characters like a,b,c,d…z . Can somone explain how to convert theses alphabets in txt file into numbers like a corresponds to1, b corresponds to 2 ,in the converted file.

Thanks.

Answer 1

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

str='I have a text file in which all the contents are characters like a,b,c,d…z . Can somone explain how to convert theses alphabets in txt file into numbers like a corresponds to1, b corresponds to 2 ,in the converted file'
s='a':'z'
for k=1:numel(s)
  str=regexprep(str,s(k),num2str(k),'ignorecase');
end
str

[Gova ReDDy]

I tried your above posted code but don't know why it is error like this "Undefined function or variable 'str'.

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

str is your string

[Gova ReDDy]

Thanks and but I tried to read my txt file as shown here

fid = fopen('../data/change.txt');
F = fread(fid);

butthe result 'F' is of size 519x1 but the original txt file contains only 173 alphabet characters. Can you help me out in reading the file properly.

The txt file is attached here.

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

fid = fopen('change.txt');
str= textscan(fid,'%s');
fclose(fid)
str=str{:}
s='a':'z'
for k=1:numel(s)
  str=regexprep(str,s(k),num2str(k),'ignorecase');
end
str

[Gova ReDDy]

Thanks a lot.

It is working but I got a last doubt of how to plot the str- cellarray I looked at different matlab posts but was unable to make it plot.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

converted_to_numbers = characters - 'a' + 1;

Then it is just a matter of writing out the numbers as text, which you already know how to do.