how do i rearrage words in an alphabetical order in an array?

Given a list of names in an array, how do i rearrange the names in alphabetical order without any conditional functions?

names = ' john alex peter matthew'

Answer 1

[dpb]

 names  =sort( split(' john alex peter matthew' ))
names =
  5×1 cell array
    {0×0 char }
    {'alex'   }
    {'john'   }
    {'matthew'}
    {'peter'  }
>> 

Eliminate the zero-length element, of course.

Starting with a cellstr() or string() array would make more sense than to have them all in one char() vector.

[Mithushan Kanthasamy]

I need a generic way where I will have more than 4 names. could you explain more?

[Image Analyst]

names = sort(split(yourCharacterString))

where yourCharacterString is your character array or string with names in it.

[Adam Danz]

dpb's answer works for any number of names separated by spaces. If your data are arranged differently, we're missing that information. Note that names with spaces will be parsed; example: De Franco.

sort(split('De Franco Cicero Edgars' ))

ans = 4x1 cell array
    {'Cicero'}
    {'De'    }
    {'Edgars'}
    {'Franco'}

One small thing to consider with sort() is that it's case sensitive. The two examples below are sorted incorrectly

sort(["adam", "Alan"])

ans = 1×2 string array
    "Alan"    "adam"

sort(["DeLuca", "Deangelo"])

ans = 1×2 string array
    "DeLuca"    "Deangelo"

To get around that sort with all lowercase (or uppercase) and use the index to control the final sorted order

names = ["DeLuca", "Deangelo"];
[~, idx] = sort(lower(names));
names(idx)

ans = 1×2 string array
    "Deangelo"    "DeLuca"

[Mithushan Kanthasamy]

thank you! that is all i need!