Why does calling STR2NUM('figure') open a figure window?

I type the following code in the MATLAB command prompt:

str2num('figure')

This will cause a figure to open; however, it should only return and empty matrix '[]'. This behavior does not occur when performing the following code:

str2double ('figure')

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This enhancement has been incorporated in Release 2006b (R2006b). For previous product releases, read below for any possible workarounds:

STR2NUM does the conversion by calling the EVAL function on the string. In the documentation for STR2NUM, the following paragraph addresses the issue:

"CAUTION: STR2NUM uses EVAL to convert the input argument, so side

effects can occur if the string contains calls to functions. Use

STR2DOUBLE to avoid such side effects or when S contains a single

number."

Using STR2DOUBLE will return a "NaN" value.