# Copyright (C) 1996 Kurt Hornik
# 
# This file is part of Octave.
# 
# Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
# under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
# Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any
# later version.
# 
# Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
# ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
# for more details.
# 
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the Free
# Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.

function m = str2mat (...)
  
# usage:  m = str2mat (s1, ...)
#
# Forms the matrix M containing the strings S1, ... as its rows.
# Each string is padded with blanks in order to form a valid matrix.

# Original version by Kurt Hornik <Kurt.Hornik@ci.tuwien.ac.at>.

  if (nargin == 0)
    usage ("str2mat (s1, ...)");
  endif

  nc = 0;

  va_start ();

  for k = 1 : nargin
    s = va_arg ();
    if (isstr (s))
      tmp = columns (s);
    else
      error ("str2mat: all arguments must be strings");
    endif

    if (tmp > nc)
      nc = tmp;
    endif
  endfor

  m = setstr (ones (nargin, nc) * toascii (" "));

  va_start ();

  for k = 1 : nargin
    s = va_arg ();
    tmp = columns (s);
    if (tmp > 0)
      m (k, 1:tmp) = s;
    endif
  endfor
  
endfunction