cleanstr(instr)

function newstr = cleanstr(instr)
% Simple utility function that cleans up stray characters and spaces from 
% strings so they can be used without causing errors or changes in format.

strays = {'\W';  % \W = anything not alphabetic, numeric, or underscore
          '_'};  % adds underscore so doesn't subscript next character in plots

newstr = regexprep(instr,strays,'');