Create a table with 2 header lines followed by numeric data

header line 1 = string

header line 2 = string

line 3:end = numeric data

How do I create a table with two header lines followed by the numeric data?

I have been using table(numeric data, 'VariableNames', header line 1) but cannot find a way to have two header lines before the numeric data begins.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

[Dheeraj]

Hi Phil Roberts,

I understand you want to create a table with two header lines.

While the "table" function in MATLAB does not natively support multiple header lines, you can achieve a similar effect using a combination of "table" and "cell arrays". Below is a method to create a table-like structure with two header lines for display purposes,

% Sample data

header1 = {'HeaderLine1', 'HeaderLine2', 'HeaderLine3'};

header2 = {'SubHeaderLine1', 'SubHeaderLine2', 'SubHeaderLine3'};

numeric_data = rand(5, 3); % Example numeric data

% Create the numeric data table

T = array2table(numeric_data, 'VariableNames', header1);

% Create a cell array to hold the complete display with both headers

completeData = [header1; header2; num2cell(numeric_data)];

% Display the table with both headers

disp(completeData);

In this approach, the "completeData" cell array combines your headers and numeric data for display. While the "table" object "T" can be used for performing operations on the numeric data, the "completeData" cell array will be useful for displaying both header lines.

Thank you.

[Phil Roberts]

Hello Dheeraj,

This works great! Thank you for your help!

Many thanks,

Phil

Answer 2

[Piyush Kumar]

Hi Phil,

As mentioned in the documentation link, Tables store columns of data in variables. As you can see in the below mentioned example, the "patients" table stores data of many variables like "LastName", which is a header in the table too.

Having 2 headers is like storing 2 vairables in a single table column. Can you please explain your use-case?

If you just want to highlight the first row of data, you may try something like this -

LastName = ["<strong>Sanchez</strong>";"Johnson";"Zhang";"Diaz";"Brown"];
Age = ["<strong>38</strong>";43;38;40;49];
Smoker = ["<strong>true</strong>";false;true;false;true];
Height = ["<strong>71</strong>";69;64;67;64];
Weight = ["<strong>176</strong>";163;131;133;119];
BloodPressure = ["<strong>124</strong>" "<strong>93</strong>"; 109 77; 125 83; 117 75; 122 80];
patients = table(LastName,Age,Smoker,Height,Weight,BloodPressure)

patients = 5x6 table
    LastName     Age     Smoker     Height    Weight    BloodPressure
    _________    ____    _______    ______    ______    _____________

    "Sanchez"    "38"    "true"      "71"     "176"     "124"    "93"
    "Johnson"    "43"    "false"     "69"     "163"     "109"    "77"
    "Zhang"      "38"    "true"      "64"     "131"     "125"    "83"
    "Diaz"       "40"    "false"     "67"     "133"     "117"    "75"
    "Brown"      "49"    "true"      "64"     "119"     "122"    "80"