Pig Latin Converter Function

Hello all,

I am trying to write a function which takes a string as input and converts it to Pig Latin string. For example, 'pig latin in matlab' would become 'igpay atinlay inay atlabmay'. So everything before the first vowel is shifted to the end of the word and following by 'ay'.

I know that I can use find to find the first vowel in each word. But then how do I move the characters to the end of each word and append 'ay' to it?

Here is what I have so far:

function [ new_string ] = pig_latin( string )
each_word = [];
temp = '';
ay = 'ay';
words = strsplit(string,' ');
num_words = numel(words);

for j=1:num_words
    temp = words{j};
    vowel = temp(find(ismember(temp,'aeiou'),1,'first'))
    vowel_loc = find(vowel,1,'first');
end

Answer 1

[KSSV]

clc; clear all ;
str = 'pig latin in matlab' ; 
C = strsplit(str) ;  % split the string 
%%chnage accordinhly 
s0 = 'ay' ; % which has to be joined 
l = cellfun(@(c)[c(2:end) c(1)],C,'uni',false) ;
m = cellfun(@(c)[c s0],l,'uni',false) ;
iwant = strjoin(m)

[Scott]

That works great, but can you please explain how each of those commands work?

[KSSV]

You can read the respective documentation....

[x y] works like joining two strings, where x and y are two strings. cellfun applies a specified function to all the cells.

[David Davis]

this isn't perfect though... if you start a word with a vowel like "other" it returns theroay

[KSSV]

What it should be?

[Image Analyst]

Is this solved yet? You accepted this answer but seem to indicate it's not right. What about my answer below? Is that right?

[KSSV]

vowels = {'a' 'e' 'i' 'o' 'u'} ;
str = 'pig latin in matlab' ; 
C = strsplit(str) ;  % split the string 
l = cellfun(@(c) c(1),C,'uni',false) ;
% get vowels pos
idx = ismember(l,vowels) ;
C1 = C(~idx) ;
%%chnage accordinhly 
s0 = 'ay' ; % which has to be joined 
l1 = cellfun(@(c)[c(2:end) c(1)],C1,'uni',false) ;
m1 = cellfun(@(c)[c s0],l1,'uni',false) ;
%%work on vowel
C2 = C(idx) ;
m2 = cellfun(@(c)[c s0],C2,'uni',false) ;
%%Replace strings back
m = cell(size(C)) ;%
m(~idx) = m1 ;
m(idx) = m2 ;
iwant = strjoin(m)

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

How about this:

To call:

new_string = pig_latin('pig latin in matlab other')

Function declaration

function [new_string] = pig_latin( string )
new_string = '';
ay = 'ay';
words = strsplit(string,' ');
numWords = length(words);

for k = 1 : numWords
    thisWord = words{k};
    firstVowel = thisWord(find(ismember(thisWord,'aeiou'),1,'first'));
    vowelLocation = strfind(thisWord, firstVowel);
  if vowelLocation >= 2
    % Start the new word at the vowel location.
    newWord{k} = [thisWord(vowelLocation:end), thisWord(1:vowelLocation-1), ay, ' '];
  else
    % If word starts with a vowel, just add 'ay'.
    newWord{k} = [thisWord, ay, ' '];
  end
end
% celldisp(newWord);
% String cells together to form the output character array.
new_string = [newWord{:}];

Shows in command window:

new_string =
igpay atinlay inay atlabmay otheray

[Scott]

That is perfect! It works great, and uses things that I know in Matlab! Thankyou image analyst!

[Image Analyst]

You're welcome. I tried to keep it somewhat simple and straightforward, and on your level and similar to your existing code. Maybe you could at least "Vote" for my answer.