% This use of ' is for transpose: mat2x2 = [1 2; 3 4]'; % transpose of a matrix cell2x2 = {1 2; 3 4}'; % transpose of a cell v=mat2x2'; % transpose of a variable v2 = (v')'; % two transpose operations foo = 1.'; % transpose of scalar 1. % Nonconjugate transpose uses .' mat2x2 = [1 2; 3 4].'; % of a matrix cell2x2 = {1 2; 3 4}.'; % of a cell v=mat2x2.'; % of a variable v2 = (v.').'; % two operations foo = 1..'; % of scalar 1. bar = v.''.'.''; % mix of transpose operations % single quote strings: sq1 = 'a single quote string'; sq2 = ... ' abcd '; % single quote string starting at column 1 sq3 = ['a','bc']; % array of single quote strings sq4 = {'a','bc'}; % cell of single quote strings % double quote strings dq1 = "a double string"; dq2 = ... " abcd "; % double quote string starting at column 1 dq3 = ["a","bc"]; % array of double quote strings % Mixture of strings and transpose c2 = {'a','bc'}'; % transpose of a cell of strings s = ['a','bc']'; % you can transpose vectors of strings (they are really 'char' arrays) s = s'; % and transpose back % (s')' is a double transpose of a string x = [(s')', ' xyz ', 'a single quote in a string'', escape \', two quotes in a string''''']; s2 = "abc\"def""ghi"; % newer versions of MATLAB support double quoted strings s3 = (["abc", "defg"]')'; % transpose a vectors of quoted string twice s4 = "abc"!; % transpose a quoted string b = true' + false'; % boolean constants