To search for a string in a cell array in MATLAB, you can use the strcmp or strcmpi function.

The strcmp function is used to compare two strings, and it returns 1 if they are equal, and 0 otherwise. The strcmpi function works in the same way as strcmp, but it ignores the case of the strings being compared.

Here's an example of how to use strcmp or strcmpi to search for a string in a cell array: 

% Define a cell array of strings
cellArray = {'apple', 'banana', 'orange', 'pear'};

% Define the string to search for
searchString = 'orange';

% Use strcmp or strcmpi to search for the string in the cell array
% The result is a logical array that indicates which elements of the cell array match the search string
matches = strcmp(cellArray, searchString); % or strcmpi for case-insensitive search

% Find the indices of the matches
indices = find(matches);

% Display the results
disp(matches)
disp(indices)

In this example, the strcmp function is used to compare each element of the cellArray to the searchString. The result is a logical array matches that has a value of 1 for each element that matches the searchString, and a value of 0 for each element that doesn't match. The find function is then used to find the indices of the matches, which are stored in the indices variable. Finally, the results are displayed using the disp function.