is it a bug?

str2num('"abc"')

ans = 

    "abc"

[Image Analyst]

What were you expecting to see?

[G A]

In the version r2015b, the answer was []. I do not think that "abc" is a number.

Answer 1

[per isakson]

I call this a bug.

My comments

• The old function, str2num(), uses eval() to do the conversion. "Eval is evil" or at least tricky to use. See https://se.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/51946-systematic-do-not-use-global-don-t-use-eval#answer_63393
• The data type, string, is new.
• str2num('"abc"') is a clever test case, which I assume is not in their test suite.

The last lines of str2num() read

if ischar(x) || iscell(x)
   x = [];
   ok = false;
end

Adding || isstring to the condition solves the problem - I think.