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Section: Inspection Functions
Tests the type of a variable. The syntax for its use is
y = isa(x,type)
 where x is the variable to test, and type is the type. Supported built-in types are 
'cell' for cell-arrays  'struct' for structure-arrays  'logical' for logical arrays  'uint8' for unsigned 8-bit integers  'int8' for signed 8-bit integers  'uint16' for unsigned 16-bit integers  'int16' for signed 16-bit integers  'uint32' for unsigned 32-bit integers  'int32' for signed 32-bit integers  'uint64' for unsigned 64-bit integers  'int64' for signed 64-bit integers  'single' for 32-bit floating point numbers  'double' for 64-bit floating point numbers  'char' for string arrays  If the argument is a user-defined type (via the class function), then the name of that class is returned. 
Here are some examples of the isa call.
--> a = {1}
a = 
 [1] 
--> isa(a,'char')
ans = 
 0 
--> isa(a,'cell')
ans = 
 1 
Here we use isa along with shortcut boolean evaluation to safely determine if a variable contains the string 'hello'
--> a = 'hello' a = hello --> isa(a,'char') && strcmp(a,'hello') ans = 1