find if one number is member of a column ,of cell array, that contains cell entries and if it is member, in which row, it appears

I have a 23*6 cell array that is called cofPairs.

As you see, the 5th and 6th column contain cell entries, that contain numbers. For example, the first element of the 5th column ( cofPairs{1,5} )

So, what I want to do.

I want to check for several random numbers if they appear in any entry in the 5th column of the array. I want also to know in which rows of the 5th column appear (in any entry).

How can I achieve this?

Thank you!

[Jan]

It would be more efficient to store the numbers inb a numerical vector instead of a column cell, which contains scalars.

Answer 1

[Jan]

Simplify the data representation at first:

for k = 1:size(C, 1)
   C{k, 5} = [C{k, 5}{:}];
end

Then the searching is easy:

x = 17;
found = false(size(C, 1), 1);
for k = 1:size(C, 1)
   found = any(C{k, 5} == x);
end

Now use found of find(found) as you want.

If you have a good reason to let the elements of the 5.th row be a cell (e.g. if the elements are vectors of different sizes in opposite of the shown example, in which they are scalars):

x = 17;
found = false(size(C, 1), 1);
for k = 1:size(C, 1)
   found = any([C{k, 5}{:}] == x);
end

[Ioannis Vourvachakis]

yes, I don't need to be cell. I did't create this array... Thank you very much!!