Vectorize Matlab/Octave code for string operation

Question

How do I vectorize the following Matlab/Octave code-

sentence='The quick brown fox';
l=findstr(sentence,' ');% One blank space
w=l(1);
first=sentence(1:w-1);
last=sentence(w:end);

I can combine the last two statements into one statement. Is there anything that can be done to convert the last four statements into one statement?

Answer 1

strtok will do what you're after.

>> [first, last] = strtok (sentence, ' ')
first = The
last =  quick brown fox

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_{PS: Given the wording in your question, I feel compelled to point out that "one-liners" and "vectorisation" are two completely unrelated concepts.}

Answer 2

You might consider using strsplit for extracting all the words in the sentence:

sentence='The quick brown fox';
words = strsplit(sentence, ' ');
first = words{1};
last = words{end};