How to replace strings in a cell array

Hello,

I an wondering how to replace strings in a cell array based on the content of the previous cell. Every time that a cell in 'input' starts with the characters QQQQ, that cell is renamed with Q_ and the content of the previous cell. For example QQQQ_01 would be renamed Q_D and QQQQ_02 would be renamed Q_E and so on. How would I do that ? The input and the desired output are illustrated below.

    input = {'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'QQQQ_01', 'E', 'QQQQ_02'}
    output = {'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'Q_D', 'E', 'Q_E'}

[Adam]

Seems like the kind of task so specific a for loop would do the job fine.

Note that they are chars rather than strings though, a distinction which didn't used to matter in Matlab but does now that strings have been introduced as their own data type.

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

>> C = {'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'QQQQ_01', 'E', 'QQQQ_02'}
>> X = find(strncmp(C,'QQQQ',4));
>> C(X) = strcat('Q_',C(X-1))
C = 
    'A'    'B'    'C'    'D'    'Q_D'    'E'    'Q_E'

You will have to decide how to handle if the first cell contains 'QQQQ'.

[012786534]

Thank you Stephen.