Concatenate cell array in matlab

In Matlab you can concatenate arrays by saying -

a=[];
a=[a,1];

How do you do something similar with a cell array?

a={};
a={a,'abc'};

The code above keeps on nesting cells within cells. I just want to append elements to the cell array. How do I achieve this?

[Stephen23]

"In Matlab you can concatenate arrays by saying "

Yes, and the square bracket concatenation operator works with all types of array, not just numeric ones. Lets try:

[1,2,pi] % concatenate scalars
C1 = {1,'cat'};
C2 = {2,'hat'};
[C1;C2] % concatenate cell arrays

ans = 2×2 cell array
    {[1]}    {'cat'}
    {[2]}    {'hat'}

T1 = cell2table(C1,'VariableNames',{'A','B'});
T2 = cell2table(C2,'VariableNames',{'A','B'});
[T1;T2] % concatenate tables

ans = 2×2 table
    A       B   
    _    _______

    1    {'cat'}
    2    {'hat'}

S1 = string(C1);
S2 = string(C2);
[S1;S2] % concatenate strings

ans = 2×2 string array
    "1"    "cat"
    "2"    "hat"

... etc etc.

In contrast, using {} is not a concatenation operator, it creates a cell array. So when you used {a,'abc'} you told MATLAB to create a new cell array containing those arrays.

Answer 1

[Anay Aggarwal]

Hi Yash

I have an understanding that you want to concatenate array.

If a and b are cell arrays, then you concatenate them in the same way you concatenate other arrays: using []:

>> a={1,'f'}
a =
  1×2 cell array
    {[1]}    {'f'}

>> b={'q',5}
b =
  1×2 cell array
    {'q'}    {[5]}

>> [a,b]
ans =
  1×4 cell array
    {[1]}    {'f'}    {'q'}    {[5]}

To append a single element, you can do a{end+1}=1 or a(end+1)={1}.

Hope this helps

Regards