{"group":{"id":1,"name":"Community","lockable":false,"created_at":"2012-01-18T18:02:15.000Z","updated_at":"2026-05-26T00:16:20.000Z","description":"Problems submitted by members of the MATLAB Central community.","is_default":true,"created_by":161519,"badge_id":null,"featured":false,"trending":false,"solution_count_in_trending_period":0,"trending_last_calculated":"2026-05-26T00:00:00.000Z","image_id":null,"published":true,"community_created":false,"status_id":2,"is_default_group_for_player":false,"deleted_by":null,"deleted_at":null,"restored_by":null,"restored_at":null,"description_opc":null,"description_html":null,"published_at":null},"problems":[{"id":649,"title":"Return the first and last characters of a character array","description":"Return the first and last character of a string, concatenated together. If there is only one character in the string, the function should give that character back twice since it is both the first and last character of the string.\r\n\r\nExample:\r\n\r\n   stringfirstandlast('boring example') = 'be'","description_html":"\u003cdiv style = \"text-align: start; line-height: 20.4333px; min-height: 0px; white-space: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, monospace; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: rgb(0, 0, 0); white-space: normal; \"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"block-size: 123.433px; display: block; min-width: 0px; padding-block-start: 0px; padding-top: 0px; perspective-origin: 407px 61.7167px; transform-origin: 407px 61.7167px; vertical-align: baseline; \"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"block-size: 63px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; margin-block-end: 9px; margin-block-start: 2px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-inline-end: 10px; margin-inline-start: 4px; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 2px; perspective-origin: 384px 31.5px; text-align: left; transform-origin: 384px 31.5px; white-space: pre-wrap; margin-left: 4px; margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-right: 10px; \"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"block-size: auto; display: inline; margin-block-end: 0px; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-inline-end: 0px; margin-inline-start: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; perspective-origin: 364px 8px; transform-origin: 364px 8px; unicode-bidi: normal; \"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"\"\u003eReturn the first and last characters of a character array, concatenated together. If there is only one character in the character array, the function should give that character back twice since it is both the first and last character of the character array.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"block-size: 21px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; margin-block-end: 9px; margin-block-start: 2px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-inline-end: 10px; margin-inline-start: 4px; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 2px; perspective-origin: 384px 10.5px; text-align: left; transform-origin: 384px 10.5px; white-space: pre-wrap; margin-left: 4px; margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-right: 10px; \"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"block-size: auto; display: inline; margin-block-end: 0px; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-inline-end: 0px; margin-inline-start: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; perspective-origin: 28.5px 8px; transform-origin: 28.5px 8px; unicode-bidi: normal; \"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"\"\u003eExample:\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); block-size: 20.4333px; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-end-end-radius: 4px; border-end-start-radius: 4px; border-start-end-radius: 4px; border-start-start-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; margin-block-end: 10px; margin-block-start: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-inline-end: 3px; margin-inline-start: 3px; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 3px; margin-top: 10px; perspective-origin: 404px 10.2167px; transform-origin: 404px 10.2167px; margin-left: 3px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 3px; \"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-end-end-radius: 0px; border-end-start-radius: 0px; border-inline-end-color: rgb(233, 233, 233); border-inline-end-style: solid; border-inline-end-width: 1px; border-inline-start-color: rgb(233, 233, 233); border-inline-start-style: solid; border-inline-start-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(233, 233, 233); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(233, 233, 233); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-start-end-radius: 0px; border-start-start-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; margin-block-end: 0px; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-inline-end: 0px; margin-inline-start: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-block-size: 18px; min-height: 18px; padding-inline-start: 4px; padding-left: 4px; white-space: nowrap; \"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"block-size: auto; border-inline-end-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-inline-end-style: none; border-inline-end-width: 0px; border-inline-start-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-inline-start-style: none; border-inline-start-width: 0px; border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-inline-end: 45px; 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text-emphasis-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); transform-origin: 64px 8.5px; \"\u003e'boring example'\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"margin-inline-end: 0px; margin-right: 0px; perspective-origin: 16px 8.5px; transform-origin: 16px 8.5px; \"\u003e) = \u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"border-block-end-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-block-start-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-inline-end-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-inline-start-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-left-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-right-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-top-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); caret-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); color: rgb(170, 4, 249); column-rule-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); margin-inline-end: 0px; margin-right: 0px; outline-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); perspective-origin: 16px 8.5px; text-decoration: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); text-emphasis-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); transform-origin: 16px 8.5px; \"\u003e'be'\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e","function_template":"function y = stringfirstandlast(x)\r\n  y = x(1);\r\nend","test_suite":"%%\r\nx = 'abcde';\r\ny_correct = 'ae';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = 'a';\r\ny_correct = 'aa';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = 'codyrocks!';\r\ny_correct = 'c!';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = ' ';\r\ny_correct = '  ';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = '  ';\r\ny_correct = '  ';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = 'az';\r\ny_correct = 'az';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz';\r\ny_correct = 'az';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = '0123456789';\r\ny_correct = '09';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = '09';\r\ny_correct = '09';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))","published":true,"deleted":false,"likes_count":44,"comments_count":5,"created_by":134,"edited_by":null,"edited_at":null,"deleted_by":null,"deleted_at":null,"solvers_count":12245,"test_suite_updated_at":"2021-01-20T11:13:02.000Z","rescore_all_solutions":false,"group_id":14,"created_at":"2012-05-01T18:41:40.000Z","updated_at":"2026-06-01T12:54:59.000Z","published_at":"2012-05-01T18:41:56.000Z","restored_at":null,"restored_by":null,"spam":false,"simulink":false,"admin_reviewed":false,"description_opc":"{\"parts\":[{\"partUri\":\"/matlab/document.xml\",\"contentType\":\"application/vnd.mathworks.matlab.code.document+xml\",\"content\":\"\u003c?xml version=\\\"1.0\\\" encoding=\\\"UTF-8\\\"?\u003e\u003cw:document xmlns:w=\\\"http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main\\\"\u003e\u003cw:body\u003e\u003cw:p\u003e\u003cw:pPr\u003e\u003cw:pStyle w:val=\\\"text\\\"/\u003e\u003cw:jc w:val=\\\"left\\\"/\u003e\u003c/w:pPr\u003e\u003cw:r\u003e\u003cw:t\u003eReturn the first and last characters of a character array, concatenated together. If there is only one character in the character array, the function should give that character back twice since it is both the first and last character of the character array.\u003c/w:t\u003e\u003c/w:r\u003e\u003c/w:p\u003e\u003cw:p\u003e\u003cw:pPr\u003e\u003cw:pStyle w:val=\\\"text\\\"/\u003e\u003cw:jc w:val=\\\"left\\\"/\u003e\u003c/w:pPr\u003e\u003cw:r\u003e\u003cw:t\u003eExample:\u003c/w:t\u003e\u003c/w:r\u003e\u003c/w:p\u003e\u003cw:p\u003e\u003cw:pPr\u003e\u003cw:pStyle w:val=\\\"code\\\"/\u003e\u003c/w:pPr\u003e\u003cw:r\u003e\u003cw:t\u003e\u003c![CDATA[   stringfirstandlast('boring example') = 'be']]\u003e\u003c/w:t\u003e\u003c/w:r\u003e\u003c/w:p\u003e\u003c/w:body\u003e\u003c/w:document\u003e\",\"relationship\":null}],\"relationships\":[{\"relationshipType\":\"http://schemas.mathworks.com/matlab/code/2013/relationships/document\",\"target\":\"/matlab/document.xml\",\"relationshipId\":\"rId1\"}]}"}],"problem_search":{"problems":[{"id":649,"title":"Return the first and last characters of a character array","description":"Return the first and last character of a string, concatenated together. If there is only one character in the string, the function should give that character back twice since it is both the first and last character of the string.\r\n\r\nExample:\r\n\r\n   stringfirstandlast('boring example') = 'be'","description_html":"\u003cdiv style = \"text-align: start; line-height: 20.4333px; min-height: 0px; white-space: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, monospace; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: rgb(0, 0, 0); white-space: normal; \"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"block-size: 123.433px; display: block; min-width: 0px; padding-block-start: 0px; padding-top: 0px; perspective-origin: 407px 61.7167px; transform-origin: 407px 61.7167px; vertical-align: baseline; \"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"block-size: 63px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; margin-block-end: 9px; margin-block-start: 2px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-inline-end: 10px; margin-inline-start: 4px; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 2px; perspective-origin: 384px 31.5px; text-align: left; transform-origin: 384px 31.5px; white-space: pre-wrap; margin-left: 4px; margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-right: 10px; \"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"block-size: auto; display: inline; margin-block-end: 0px; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-inline-end: 0px; margin-inline-start: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; perspective-origin: 364px 8px; transform-origin: 364px 8px; unicode-bidi: normal; \"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"\"\u003eReturn the first and last characters of a character array, concatenated together. If there is only one character in the character array, the function should give that character back twice since it is both the first and last character of the character array.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"block-size: 21px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; margin-block-end: 9px; margin-block-start: 2px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-inline-end: 10px; margin-inline-start: 4px; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 2px; perspective-origin: 384px 10.5px; text-align: left; transform-origin: 384px 10.5px; white-space: pre-wrap; margin-left: 4px; margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-right: 10px; \"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"block-size: auto; display: inline; margin-block-end: 0px; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-inline-end: 0px; margin-inline-start: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; perspective-origin: 28.5px 8px; transform-origin: 28.5px 8px; unicode-bidi: normal; \"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"\"\u003eExample:\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); 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text-emphasis-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); transform-origin: 64px 8.5px; \"\u003e'boring example'\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"margin-inline-end: 0px; margin-right: 0px; perspective-origin: 16px 8.5px; transform-origin: 16px 8.5px; \"\u003e) = \u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"border-block-end-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-block-start-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-inline-end-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-inline-start-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-left-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-right-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); border-top-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); caret-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); color: rgb(170, 4, 249); column-rule-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); margin-inline-end: 0px; margin-right: 0px; outline-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); perspective-origin: 16px 8.5px; text-decoration: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); text-emphasis-color: rgb(170, 4, 249); transform-origin: 16px 8.5px; \"\u003e'be'\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e","function_template":"function y = stringfirstandlast(x)\r\n  y = x(1);\r\nend","test_suite":"%%\r\nx = 'abcde';\r\ny_correct = 'ae';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = 'a';\r\ny_correct = 'aa';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = 'codyrocks!';\r\ny_correct = 'c!';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = ' ';\r\ny_correct = '  ';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = '  ';\r\ny_correct = '  ';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = 'az';\r\ny_correct = 'az';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz';\r\ny_correct = 'az';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = '0123456789';\r\ny_correct = '09';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))\r\n\r\n%%\r\nx = '09';\r\ny_correct = '09';\r\nassert(isequal(stringfirstandlast(x),y_correct))","published":true,"deleted":false,"likes_count":44,"comments_count":5,"created_by":134,"edited_by":null,"edited_at":null,"deleted_by":null,"deleted_at":null,"solvers_count":12245,"test_suite_updated_at":"2021-01-20T11:13:02.000Z","rescore_all_solutions":false,"group_id":14,"created_at":"2012-05-01T18:41:40.000Z","updated_at":"2026-06-01T12:54:59.000Z","published_at":"2012-05-01T18:41:56.000Z","restored_at":null,"restored_by":null,"spam":false,"simulink":false,"admin_reviewed":false,"description_opc":"{\"parts\":[{\"partUri\":\"/matlab/document.xml\",\"contentType\":\"application/vnd.mathworks.matlab.code.document+xml\",\"content\":\"\u003c?xml version=\\\"1.0\\\" encoding=\\\"UTF-8\\\"?\u003e\u003cw:document xmlns:w=\\\"http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main\\\"\u003e\u003cw:body\u003e\u003cw:p\u003e\u003cw:pPr\u003e\u003cw:pStyle w:val=\\\"text\\\"/\u003e\u003cw:jc w:val=\\\"left\\\"/\u003e\u003c/w:pPr\u003e\u003cw:r\u003e\u003cw:t\u003eReturn the first and last characters of a character array, concatenated together. If there is only one character in the character array, the function should give that character back twice since it is both the first and last character of the character array.\u003c/w:t\u003e\u003c/w:r\u003e\u003c/w:p\u003e\u003cw:p\u003e\u003cw:pPr\u003e\u003cw:pStyle w:val=\\\"text\\\"/\u003e\u003cw:jc w:val=\\\"left\\\"/\u003e\u003c/w:pPr\u003e\u003cw:r\u003e\u003cw:t\u003eExample:\u003c/w:t\u003e\u003c/w:r\u003e\u003c/w:p\u003e\u003cw:p\u003e\u003cw:pPr\u003e\u003cw:pStyle w:val=\\\"code\\\"/\u003e\u003c/w:pPr\u003e\u003cw:r\u003e\u003cw:t\u003e\u003c![CDATA[   stringfirstandlast('boring example') = 'be']]\u003e\u003c/w:t\u003e\u003c/w:r\u003e\u003c/w:p\u003e\u003c/w:body\u003e\u003c/w:document\u003e\",\"relationship\":null}],\"relationships\":[{\"relationshipType\":\"http://schemas.mathworks.com/matlab/code/2013/relationships/document\",\"target\":\"/matlab/document.xml\",\"relationshipId\":\"rId1\"}]}"}],"errors":[],"facets":[[{"value":"Introduction to MATLAB","count":1,"selected":false},{"value":"Strings I","count":1,"selected":false}],[{"value":"medium","count":1,"selected":false}]],"term":"tag:\"character array\"","page":1,"per_page":50,"sort":"map(difficulty_value,0,0,999) asc"}}