function [str, uniquified] = makeUnique(str, stringsToProtect, maxStringLength)

szStrings = size(str); 

numStrings = numel(str); 

uniquified = false(1, numStrings); 

[str, sortIdx] = sort(reshape(str, 1, [])); 

stringsToProtect = reshape(stringsToProtect, 1, []); 

% Find where there are groups of duplicates by comparing two sorted strings

% having a one-element shift.

isDuplicateOfPrevious = [false(min(1, numStrings)), strcmp(str(1:end-1), str(2:end))]; 

isDuplicateOfPreviousDiff = diff([isDuplicateOfPrevious, false]); 

isDuplicateStart = (isDuplicateOfPreviousDiff > 0); 

isDuplicateStopIdx = find(isDuplicateOfPreviousDiff < 0); 

% Find where groups of protected strings start.

% For performance, only call ismember when there are both elements in

% stringsToProtect and duplicates to compare. This is important for the

% case when maxStringLength is needed but the second input is {}.

isProtectedStart = false(1, numStrings); 

if ~isempty(stringsToProtect) && any(~isDuplicateOfPrevious) 

    isProtectedStart(~isDuplicateOfPrevious) = matches(str(~isDuplicateOfPrevious), stringsToProtect); 

end 

duplicateNum = 1; 

for changeIdx = find(isDuplicateStart | isProtectedStart) 

    if isDuplicateStart(changeIdx) && isProtectedStart(changeIdx)

        startIdx = changeIdx;

        stopIdx = isDuplicateStopIdx(duplicateNum);

        duplicateNum = duplicateNum + 1;

    elseif isDuplicateStart(changeIdx)

        startIdx = changeIdx + 1;

        stopIdx = isDuplicateStopIdx(duplicateNum);

        duplicateNum = duplicateNum + 1;

    else % isProtectedStartIdx(changeIdx)

        startIdx = changeIdx;

        stopIdx = changeIdx;

    end

    try

        str(startIdx:stopIdx) = makeNameUnique(str, startIdx, stopIdx, stringsToProtect, maxStringLength);

    catch ex

        throwAsCaller(ex);

    end

    uniquified(startIdx:stopIdx) = true;

end

% Unsort and reshape the now unique STRINGS and MODIFIED to match how

% STRINGS was input.

inverseSortIdx(sortIdx) = 1:numStrings; 

str = reshape(str(inverseSortIdx), szStrings); 

uniquified = reshape(uniquified(inverseSortIdx), szStrings); 

end