(octave.info)Character Strings in Mex-Files

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A.2.3 Character Strings in Mex-Files
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As mex-files do not make the distinction between single and double
quoted strings that Octave does, there is perhaps less complexity in the
use of strings and character matrices.  An example of their use that
parallels the demo in ‘stringdemo.cc’ is given in the file ‘mystring.c’,
as shown below.

     #include <string.h>
     #include "mex.h"
     
     void
     mexFunction (int nlhs, mxArray *plhs[],
                  int nrhs, const mxArray *prhs[])
     {
       mwSize m, n;
       mwIndex i, j;
       mxChar *pi, *po;
     
       if (nrhs != 1 || ! mxIsChar (prhs[0])
           || mxGetNumberOfDimensions (prhs[0]) > 2)
         mexErrMsgTxt ("ARG1 must be a char matrix");
     
       m = mxGetM (prhs[0]);
       n = mxGetN (prhs[0]);
       pi = mxGetChars (prhs[0]);
       plhs[0] = mxCreateNumericMatrix (m, n, mxCHAR_CLASS, mxREAL);
       po = mxGetChars (plhs[0]);
     
       for (j = 0; j < n; j++)
         for (i = 0; i < m; i++)
           po[j*m + m - 1 - i] = pi[j*m + i];
     }

An example of its expected output is

     mystring (["First String"; "Second String"])
     ⇒ Second String
        First String

   Other functions in the mex interface for handling character strings
are ‘mxCreateString’, ‘mxArrayToString’, and
‘mxCreateCharMatrixFromStrings’.  In a mex-file, a character string is
considered to be a vector rather than a matrix.  This is perhaps an
arbitrary distinction as the data in the ‘mxArray’ for the matrix is
consecutive in any case.